
ghtN^ . G AT 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 







THE OLD STATK-HOT'SE ([748) AS RESTOREn IN 1 88 1. FrontisfiiTf. 



IJrcat 4itics of! tijc lyjjublir > ' - ' 

THE 

STORY OF BOSTON 

A STUDY OF INDEPENDENCY 



ARTHUR OILMAN, M.A. 

Al'TllOR OF "the story OF ROME," "tHE STORY OF THE SARACENS," '"A HIS- 
TORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE," EDITOR OF"tHE POETICAL 
WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER," ETC., ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 



■ There never was a colony, save this, that went forth, not to seek gold, but God." 

— yamcs Russell Loivcll 
' Civil independence was as truly their object as religious liberty." 

— Josiah Quincy 



NEW YORK. & LONDON 

G. P. PUTNAM'S S 

®ljc llnickcrboclur '^rcss 
1889 




COPYRIGHT BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Ubc Iknicfeerbochcr ptcee, t\c\v HJorli 

Electrotyped and Printed by 
G. p. Putnam's Sons 



^ 






^•^ 



PREFACE. 



The Story of Boston deals with the doings of 
a community of earnest men who for eightscore 
years had no considerable interests except those 
connected with poHtics and reHgion. For the whole 
of the earlier period of their history they gave them- 
selves with all the force of their nature to such sub- 
jects as these. The pursuits which in our day 
absorb the attention of intelligent men are peculiar 
to our age and generation ; the Fathers of New 
England knew them not. 

Governor Hutchinson was right when he wrote, in 
1773 : " For many years past the town of Boston 
has been used to interest itself in every affair of 
moment which concerned the Province in general " : 
for certainly Boston sought to do all that it could 
to give form to the action of the colonists in other 
parts of Massachusetts and of America. The story 
of Boston cannot be told, therefore, without reference 
to events that were going on in other parts of the 
land. Her great citizen, Samuel Adams, was the 
" Father of the American Revolution." Boston 
men saw the beginning of that struggle, and they 
stood side by side with their fellows of the other 
colonies then, as they have stood by them in the 



IV PREFA CE. 

conflicts of the nation since. As we approach our 
own day we are not so much involved in the affairs 
of other communities, though Boston has never been 
an uninterested spectator of pubhc movements in 
any portion of the continent. 

The Story of Boston calls us to a study of Inde- 
pendency, — to the contemplation, first, of a vigorous 
struggle by strong men for a century and a half 
against a powerful monarchy ; and next, to an ex- 
amination of the fruits of a discipline of debate and 
conflict in the development of a typical American 
civilization. 

Nowhere is the truth more plain that the story of 
a community is told in the lives of its inhabitants. 
It is only as one becomes filled with the spirit of the 
men and women of Boston that he discovers the 
springs which have moved them in dealing with 
agitating questions. The outside record of the 
soldier, of the statesman, of the legislator, is written 
large on the pages of history ; but the inspiring 
motives of their actions are often hidden in the 
unprinted story of familiar life and conversation. It 
is hoped that in some degree the real lives of the 
fathers of Boston and of those who labored and 
suffered by their sides may be brought out in the 
following pages. 

Cambku)i;e, Juue 17, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



I. — A Declaration of Independence 

II. WiNTHROP AND HIS COMPANIONS . 

III. — Getting Ready for a Voyage . 
IV. — The Founding of Boston . 
v.— Margaret Winthrop Comes over 
VI. — The Lay of the Land 
VII. — Sundry Troubles 
VIII. — The Government Becomes more 
Popular ..... 
IX. — Welcome and Unwelcome Visitors 
X. — The Charter is Attacked 
XL — The Times of the Mathers 
XII. — The Charter is Lost . 
XIII. — An American Despotism 
XIV. — The King's Governors Begin to 
Rule ..... 

XV. — The Governors and the Boston 

People ..... 
XVI. — Strained Relations . 
XVII. — Is IT Lawful to Resist? . 



PAGE 
I 

II 
23 

33 
45 
56 
^3 

83 

96 

114 

129 

145 
158 

172 

190 

207 
221 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



XVIII. — Tested and not Found Wanting 
XIX. — A Maltster Enters Politics . 
XX. — Boston Opposes a Tax 
XXI. — In the Grip of the Army 
XXII.— Blood is Spilled 
XXIII. — Stirring up a Continent 
XXIV.— War .... 
XXV. — Boston Besieged 
XXVI. — Independence Declared and Won 
XXVII. ^The Old Order Changeth 
XXVIII.— The Town Becomes a City 
XXIX. — The Second Mayor . 
XXX. — The New Order Established . 
XXXI. — Changing Boundary Lines 
XXXII. — Individualism and Other Isms . 
XXXIII. — Modern Boston .... 
Index 



240 
256 

273 
290 

305 
321 

344 
Z^Z 
378 
396 
414 
426 

438 
448 

457 
469 

483 




ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

The Old State-House (1748) as Restored in 1881. Frontispiece 

John Winthrop • -13 

Sir Richard Saltonstall. From a Portrait by Rem- 
brandt 19 

Winthrop's Fleet in Boston Harbor, from a Spot be- 
tween Boston and East Boston 39 

Blaxton's Lot 43 

The Great Elm IN the Common. Destroyed in 1876 . 47 
Copp's Hill as it Appeared in Winthrop's Time. The 

Mill was Erected IN 1632 57 

Two Pages of the " New England Primer " (Seventeenth 
Century). This was Used as Lately as the Begin- 
ning of the Nineteenth Century . . . .71 
The Frog Pond on the Common as it Now Appears . . 75 

Increase Mather i33 

The First King's Chapel (16S8), Showing the Beacon . 166 
The First Church, or "Old Brick." Built in 1713, on 
the Site of the Present Joy's Building and Occupied 
until 1808. Its Bell Sounded the Alarm at the 
Time of the " Massacre," March 5, 1770 . . . 179 
Furniture of Wealthier Townsmen in Provincial Times 183 
A Map of Boston in 1722. This Map, Known as the 
"Bonner Map," was Made by Captain John Bonner, 
AND No Older Map is Known that Gives the Streets 
AND Prominent Places. The Original is Preserved 
among the Archives of the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society . . .187 

Interior of Christ Church at Present (Built 1723) . 203 

Boston and its Environs in 1775. This Shows the For- 
tifications around the Town at the Opening of the 
Revolution ; it also Serves, so far as the Natural 
Features Go, to Illustrate All Stages of the 
Earlier History of the City ... . 209 

vii 



Y I i 1 ILL US TRA TIONS, 

PAGK 

Samuel Adams. At the A(;e of 45 Yeaks. After the 

Portrait by Copley in the Art Museum (1772) . . 223 

The Second Faneuil Hall (1764) 235 

Interior of the Present King's Chapel, (Corner-Stone 

Laid 1749) 251 

John Hancock. After the Portrait by Copley in the 

Museum of Fine Arts (1737-1 793) 257 

James Otis, (1725-1783) at the Age of Thirty. After k 

Portrait by Blackburn 267 

The Old State-House in 1801. The State-Street End, 
Showing the Old Brick Church (on Washington 
Street) behind IT. Built in 1748 . . . .315 

Governor Thomas Hutchinson, after a Portrait in Pos- 
session of the Massachusetts Historical Associa- 
tion, ONCE THE Property of Jonathan Mayhew . . 333 

The Old South Church, in its Present Condition. (Built 

1729) 341 

John Hancock's House, Facing the Common . . . 401 
Crossing of the Railroads in the Back-Bay Region in 

1840 411 

JosiAH Quincy (i 772-1 864). From the Portrait by 

Stuart now in the Museum of Fine Arts . . 427 
Advertisement of the Worcester Railroad, from the 

Papers of the Day 450 

The Rear of the State-House, and the Monument, 

Showing the Removal of the Hill (1811-1S12) . . 453 
The Monument from Temple and Derne Streets (iSii- 

1812) 455 

Map of Modern Boston, from the Latest Authoritative 

Sources (1889) 4*^3 

The Present State-House (Built IN 1795) . . . . 471 
The Private Library of George Ticknor, until Lately 

IN THE House on the Corner of Park and Beacon 

Streets, in which Lafayette was Entertained. (0>. 

1870) 477 

The Public Garden and the Buildings around it in the 

" Back Bay" Region. This is all on " Made" Land, 

— the Sidewalk in the Foreground Marking the Ex- 

tkkmk Limit of the Original Shore ... 4S1 



THE STORY OF BOSTON. 



I. 



A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



The twenty-sixth of August, 1629, is an important 
date in the history of Boston. On that day the de- 
cision was taken that determined the settlement of 
the town. Had it not been for a conclusion then 
reached by a company of discreet gentlemen who 
met at Cambridge, England, the promontory called 
Shawmut might have been peopled by quite a differ- 
ent class of settlers from those who made it their 
first home on the American coast. 

Up to that time England had done but little in 
the way of settling the new lands in the West, 
though she made great claims upon America, be- 
cause, as she supposed, her sailor, Cabot, had been 
the first of Europeans to lay his eyes on the shores 
that he appropriately called Prima Vista. There 
had, it is true, been considerable exploration under 
Elizabeth ; but it was not until the reign of James 
that any thing creditable and enduring was actually 
accomplished. On the third of November, 1620, 

I 



2 A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

the latter sovereign formed a body corporate known 
as " The Council for New England," the full 
name of which was " The Council Established at 
Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the Planting, 
Ruling, Ordering, and Governing of New England in 
America," and it was upon its charter that most of 
the New England grants were based. The act of 
incorporation was essentially the giving of new and 
enlarged privileges to a body established in 1606 by 
the same king, which was known as " The Northern 
Colony of Virginia." 

The Council for New England was an important 
company, comprising forty persons, most of them 
men of distinction, and some of them peers of the 
highest rank." In March, 1628, it made a grant to 
another company of the territory in which Boston 
lies, known as " the Massachewset." The name had 
been conferred upon it by Captain John Smith, the 
explorer of Virginia, who considered it " the paradise 
of all those parts." There is some mystery about 
the granting of this charter, and there was indefinite- 
ness about the extent of the territory conveyed ; but 
without stopping to have all matters settled, the 
persons interested, who really formed a great land 
company, sent out a small colony under command 
of John Endicott, one of their number, which 
reached Salem, then called Naumkeag, in Septem- 
ber, 1628, and that place became the first town in 
the colony. 

* The facts about the Council for New England are given in de- 
tail by Charles Deane, LL.D., in Winsor's " Narrative and Critical 
History of America," vol. iii., \)\\. 295, 320, etc. 



THE CHARTER OBTAINED. 3 

When the council for New England sold the terri- 
tory just mentioned it gave the buyers no powers of 
government (though it had received rights for " or- 
dering and governing "), and it became necessary to 
obtain them from the king, who at that time was 
Charles the First. By whatever means, a charter 
was obtained from him, and it was duly signed and 
sealed March 4, 1629. The territory was then de- 
fined as extending from three miles north of the 
Merrimac River to three miles south of the Charles 
River, and from the Atlantic Ocean to " the South 
Sea," as the Pacific was called. This seems an im- 
mense territory, but it did not appear so vast to the 
grantors as it does to us, because it was limited in 
two important particulars. In the first place, it was 
generally supposed that our continent was an island, 
the distance across which was not great * ; and, in the 
second place, all territory that might prove to be 
occupied by any Christian state was excluded from 
the grant. The natives reported to John Smith that 
the river of Massachusetts extended " many days' 
journey into the entrails of that country," and in 
1619, a bold explorer dreamed of getting through to 
the Indiesby way of the Charles River, or the Mystic, 
which seems marvellously strange to us who know 
those little streams! 

The persons interested in the Massachusetts 

wished to fish or to trade with the natives, and to 

* The only exception to this belief known to the present writer is 
found in the " Records of the council for New England," edited by 
Charles Deane, LL.D., and published in the proceedings of the 
American Antiquarian Society for 1S67. On page 124 it is said that 
the distance " from sea to seals near about three thousand miles.". 



4 A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

establish colonies for those purposes ; but it was 
not long before the purposes changed. Many who 
were restive under the condition of religious and 
political affairs in England, who were discouraged at 
the prospect of ever accomplishing any thing in the 
way of certain reforms that they felt to be all-im- 
portant, conceived the project of making a colony 
for religion under the purchase. Ferdinando Gorges,* 
in his book " America Painted to the Life," says that 
there were several kinds of these people, who did not 
agree among themselves ; that some of the more 
discreet among them made plans to settle in New 
England, and that " in a very short time numbers of 
people of all sorts flocked thither in heaps " ; but 
this anticipates our story. 

The charter of Charles the First constituted the 
original purchasers, and some score of others whom 
they had admitted to their company, a political body 
corporate with the name " The Governor and Com- 
pany of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," 
and gave them authority to enact laws and to carry 
them out, provided they made none opposed to 
those of England. By the end of May arrangements 
had been made to send out a second company of 
settlers, under the general direction of the Reverend 
Francis Higginson. Five ships sailed from the Isle 
of Wight in that month, and reached Salem by tlie 
end of June ; but our interest is not with them. 
The body corporate provided by the charter was far 
from complete in its political powers, though the 

* Quoted by Hutchinson, in his " History of Massachusetts," 
chapter i. 



A BOLD suggestion: 5 

governor, the deputy-governor, and the eighteen 
" assistants," which it mentioned, were authorized to 
make laws, and an annual gathering was provided 
for, in which all the " freemen " of the colony were 
to be brought together as " The Great and General 
Court." 

The interest in the movement to which Gorges 
referred continued in England, and was destined to 
have a greater influence upon American affairs than 
he or any one else dreamed. Among the persons 
connected with it were several gentlemen of " figure 
and estate," as the old form of speech expresses it, 
who thought that there might be an opportunity in 
the distant land to manage affairs both of church 
and state in accordance with their own views. They 
became alarmed as they saw some of the principal 
liberal speakers in parliament committed to the 
Tower and to other prisons, and though they had 
hoped long, they at last gave up all expectation of 
being able to bring about a political and religious 
reformation in the father-land. To one of these, 
Matthew Cradock, who was governor of the Massa- 
chusetts company, a bold inspiration was suggested. 
It was no less than this : that the charter and the 
company itself might both be removed to the New 
World.* 

In the history of America we find that at one 
time and another certain individual men seem to 

* " He did not say, what he must have been clearly understood to 
mean, that in this way the king would have some difficulty in laying 
his hand upon the governor." " History of England, from the 
Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War," by Samuel 
R. Gardiner, LL.D., vol. vii., p. 156, 



6 A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

preside over the destinies of the communities in 
which they Hve, and this is remarkably true in the 
history of Boston. Mr. Cradock appears now merely 
to make a suggestion, and it is another man who 
rises to prominence first, as the presiding genius of 
the settlement of our promontory. The character- 
istics and the very name of John Winthrop were 
strongly stamped upon much of the expression of 
life in the town during the early years of its exist- 
ence, and their influence has not yet been lost. The 
meetings of the company had been held in London, 
but no particular place was mentioned in the char- 
ter, and they could be, and actually were at times, 
held elsewhere. 

Perhaps this removal had been thought of before. 
In the year 1644, at a time when there was a good 
deal of political discussion in Boston, Mr, Winthrop 
wrote a formal " Discourse on Government," which 
has been printed.""'" In it lie says that when the 
charter was at first drawn, it was the intention to 
"keep the chief government in the hands of the 
company residing in England," as was the case in 
the charter for Virginia, but that a clause to that 
effect was stricken out, " with much difficulty," and 
permission given to establish a government in 
America. Mr. Winthrop does not make it clear, 
however, that any thing more was intended than that 
such rights as had been given to Endicott might be 

* In the following jiages much use will he made of the " Life antl 
Letters of John Winthrop," in which (ii., 443) this " Discourse," 
which came to light in i860, among a mass of papers discovered in 
an old family residence at New London, Conn., will be found. 



DISCUSSING REMOVAL. / 

delegated to those who should go across the ocean, 
and that was quite different from the authority 
which he and his associates exercised in Boston after 
the actual transfer of the charter. As for the meet- 
ings, the gentlemen were free to come together, if 
they thought best, on a ship in the Thames, for all 
that the charter said ; and if perchance that ship 
were to weigh anchor, and they should find them- 
selves sailing away towards America, ought the 
meeting be stopped ? If the proceedings should of 
right be stopped, how far might the vessel sail with- 
out making them illegal ? Mr. Cradock was sure 
that there was room for a little profitable study in 
questions like these, and accordingly he made his 
momentous proposal, at a meeting held in London 
in July, that the charter and the government should 
be transferred to America, those members* of the 
company being placed in its offices who should be 
willing to " inhabit and continue there " with their 
families. 

Nothing in so grave a matter was to be done in haste 
and it was decided that before the next meeting, 
which was to be held on the twenty-eighth of August, 
the members should write out their views, both in 
favor of the proposition and against it, and they 
were desired " to carry this business secretly, that 
the same be not divulged," because, as they appear 
to have very well understood, taking a charter 
across seas was something very like setting up an 
independent government and placing it so remote 
from the king and parliament that they would find 
it difficult to interfere with it. There was, in fact, 



8 A DECLARA TION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

no reason for keeping the plan secret except this: 
that the scheme involved independence of king and 
parliament. In an address delivered on the comple- 
tion of the second century from the settlement of 
Boston, Josiah Ouincy, then president of Harvard 
College, declared that the idea of independence of 
the parent state was first conceived by Winthrop 
and Dudley and Saltonstall and their associates ; 
that they, by their act in bringing the charter over 
the sea, indicated a settled purpose to obtain inde- 
pendence, and made as efificient a declaration of that 
purpose as was possible under their circumstances. 
They actually obtained, Mr. Quincy asserted, "an 
effectual independence under a nominal subjection." 
The historian, William Gordon, says of their motives 
(vol. i., page 42) : " They meant to be independent 
of English parliaments." 

Can we imagine the thought and conferences that 
occupied the four weeks after this meeting? These 
were earnest men, and though on the face of the 
records the matter seems to be new, there is reason 
to suspect, as has been remarked, that they had long 
held the secret intention of making such a transfer 
as was now broached. However, they took counsel 
of one another, and especially of a Mr. John White 
of their number, a man learned in the law, and after 
having satisfied themselves that it would be legal to 
make the transfer, they inquired who were willing to 
go to New England to " inhabit and continue there." 
Mr. Cradock had intimated that there were persons 
of worth and quality ready for the move. Now they 
appear. 



THE MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 9 

On the twenty-sixth of August — two days before 
the meeting that was to settle the matter, — twelve 
men held the important conference to which refer- 
ence has been made. Little did they foresee the im- 
portance of their unpretentious gathering. Perhaps 
they met in the room of Mr. John Winthrop's son, 
Forth, in Emanuel College. They failed to record 
the place, and we know only that it was in Cam- 
bridge. How long the men who met on that mem- 
orable day debated the subject before them we are 
not informed. We are certain, however, that " upon 
due consideration," having weighed the greatness of 
the work and the consequences of their action, they 
all agreed, and sincerely and freely promised and 
bound themselves one to the other, to " pass the 
seas (under God's protection), to inhabit and con- 
tinue in New England," provided that the whole gov- 
ernment and the charter should be legally transferred 
to remain there also."^ 

When the company met two days later, it was 
announced that the business to be attended to was 
to give answer to the gentlemen who had signed 
this agreement. There was no haste in this case. 

* With regard to the transfer, Mr. Bancroft writes in his ninth 
chapter: "The lawfulness was at the time not questioned by the 
privy council ; at a later day was expressly affirmed by Sawyer, the 
attorney-general ; and in 1677 the chief-justices Rainsford and 
North still described the ' charter as making the adventurers a cor- 
poration upon the place.' " Dr. Ellis says that the imputation that 
the transfer was made illegally, in daring contempt of authority, and 
that the " company surreptitiously stole away from England with 
the patent to set up an unlicensed authority on the soil of New 
England," has been " satisfactorily set aside." — " The Puritan Age 
and Rule," p. 47. 



lO A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Two committees were appointed to prepare argu- 
ments on the subject, the one for and the other 
against making the transfer. Accordingly the fol- 
lowing morning the committees met. It was at the 
early hour of seven. They weighed each other's 
arguments — they turned them over and over again. 
Finally they discussed the points thoroughly before 
the whole company, and then a vote was called for. 
As many as desired to have the charter and the 
government of the plantation removed to America 
were asked to hold up their hands. Those who were 
opposed were likewise asked to do the same, and it 
appearing that it was the general consent that the 
removal should take place, it was formally decided 
that an order for the transfer should be drawn up. 
This, President Quincy calls " the first and original 
declaration of independence." 




11. 



WINTHROP AND HIS COMPANIONS. 



Of the twelve men who thus boldly declared their 
independence, and expressed their willingness to be- 
come pilgrims, the first to fix our attention now, as we 
look at the list under the light of subsequent history, 
is Mr. John Winthrop. Probably his name would 
have attracted us if we had examined the list in the 
year 1630, for the man who bore it was evidently a 
person of no mean importance. He was a native of 
the little hamlet of Groton in Suffolk, a few miles 
west from Ipswich, a place so insignificant that it has 
faded from our maps, and its very name is dropped 
from the great gazetteers of our day. It is of im- 
portance to us in connection with the annals of 
Boston and of America, however, and will always be 
remembered as having given its name to other places 
in the New World. 

John Winthrop was a late comer in the group of 
men interested in this scheme for colonization. His 
name does not occur in the records of the Governor 
and Company of the Massachusetts Bay until the 
meeting after that of August twenty-sixth, and we do 
not even know that he was actually present at any 
meeting until October, when he was appointed to 



12 WIN THRO P AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

make arrangements of a business nature for those 
who intended to emigrate. Though he comes thus 
suddenly into prominence, the course of his life, laid 
before us in his " Life and Letters," shows that he 
had been much engaged both in considerations of 
the progress of New England and old England. 
He felt (to draw from a carefully written paper 
known as " General Considerations for the Planta- 
tion of New England," which was circulated among 
some of the friends of the enterprise) that he had 
fallen upon disastrous times ; that fountains of learn- 
ing in his native country were corrupted ; that all 
arts and trades were carried on in such deceitful and 
unrighteous ways that it was wellnigh impossible 
for a good man to live by any of them ; that the 
land was weary of her inhabitants ; that man had 
become of less importance than beasts, children, who 
ought to have been considered blessings, being count- 
ed the greatest burdens; that the kingdom of anti- 
christ was increasing ; that, in brief, the Lord had be- 
gun to frown upon England and to cut its inhabitants 
short. It seemed to Mr. John Winthrop that America 
was intended by Providence to be a place of refuge 
for the many who were to be saved out of the general 
calamity which seemed imminent, and that emigra- 
tion was a work of God for the good of the church, 
which had no place left to fly into but the wilderness. 
The American continent was supposed to be the 
home of the arch-fiend and his angels, and a genera- 
tion later Michael Wigglesworth, the typical Puritan 
poet, wrote in " God's Controversy with New Eng- 
land," that the region was 







JOHN WINTHROP. 



13 



14 WINTHROP AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

" A waste and howling wilderness, 

Where none inhabited, 
But hellish fiends and brutish men 

That devils worshipped. 
This region was in darkness placed, 

Far off from heaven's light, 
Amidst the shadows of grim death 

And of eternal night. 

Mr. Winthrop did not fail to discuss the other side 
of the question in his " General Considerations "; 
probably that he might have a reply to give those 
who should differ from him in opinion. If it were 
said that Englishmen had no right to enter upon a 
land that had so long been occupied by others, he 
replied that the natives enclosed no land, and that 
if suf^cient for their use were left to them, the 
remainder might lawfully be taken ; that there were 
in fact but few of the natives left, since a great 
plague had overtaken them, and that those who 
were living would learn so much from Englishmen as 
to be able to obtain more benefit from what might 
be left them than they then did from the whole land. 
Was it urged that if good people were to leave 
England it would be more open to the judgments 
feared than it was before ; he replied that the depart- 
ing of the good people would only foreshadow and 
not bring on the evil, and might cause the remnant 
to repent ; that the emigrants would do more good 
in the new land than at home ; and that the barbari- 
ans might through them receive the gospel, the 
preaching of which had been one of the prominent 
purposes of every scheme of colonization that had 
been proposed since the days of Columbus and the 



THE ONE GREAT BOOK. I 5 

Cabots. The colony at Salem had already placed 
on its official seal an Indian erect holding an arrow 
in its right hand with the Macedonian cry, " Come 
over and help us ! " indicative of its intentions in 
respect to the spiritual welfare of the savages. 

John Winthrop was at the time forty-two years of 
age. His lot had been cast among men who had 
been associated with such statesmen and scholars as 
Bacon and Essex and Cecil, accustomed to discuss 
the highest matters of state. He was born the year 
that his country was threatened by the great Armada 
from Spain, and he had lived through the last part of 
the reign of Elizabeth, the whole of that of James 
the First, and the first years of King Charles. The 
discussions of vital topics of statecraft and theology 
were as familiar to him as household words. He was 
eleven years old when Spenser died, and doubtless 
he was acquainted with the almost puritanic allegory 
of that most poetical of poets. Doubtless, too, he 
was familiar with the " Divine Emblems " of Francis 
Quarles ; perhaps he knew of the quiet life of saintly 
George Herbert, then hidden at Bemerton ; and we 
may imagine that he had seen something of the brill- 
iant promise of the youthful Milton, who had lately 
taken his bachelor's degree at Cambridge. 

In the " History of the English People," by Green, 
and in the history of our literature, by Taine, we be- 
come acquainted with the most powerful influence 
upon the development of the English character at 
this time. In his history, Mr. Green says: "The 
small Geneva Bibles carried the Scripture into every 
home, and wove it into the life of every English 



1 6 W IN THRO P AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

family " ; and he shows that the influence of this 
book was great also upon the intellectual develop- 
ment of the people, " that the mass of picturesque 
allusions and illustrations which we borrow from a 
thousand books, our fathers were forced to borrow 
from one," for, as he adds, " the Bible was as yet the 
one book that was familiar to every Englishman, and 
everywhere its words, as they fell on ears which cus- 
tom had not deadened to their force and beauty, 
kindled a startling enthusiasm." Among the circle 
to which John Winthrop belonged the Bible was still 
the one great book, and as we consider this fact we 
shall, as Mr. Green says, " better understand the 
strange mosaic of biblical words and phrases which 
colored English talk two hundred years ago." The 
Geneva version was the one that the people still car- 
ried, but the translation known as " King James's " 
had appeared but a score of years previous to the 
time of the Boston emigration, and the fact that it 
was in progress, and finally that it had been completed, 
must have added to the interest in the volume. 

The letters of Winthrop present us the picture of 
a loving husband and father, a careful man of affairs, 
a far-seeing statesman, and a most devout man of re- 
ligion. He addresses the most afTectionate messages 
to his " good wife," to whom he often writes in terms 
like these : " Yet I must kiss my sweet wife * ; and so, 

* It is Winthrop's third wife, Margaret Tindal, who is thus 
addressed. In her, according to the sympathetic historian Gardiner, 
" he found his mate ; she it was who made him what he now became. 
From the day that his faith was plighted to her, ... he learned 
to step boldly out amongst his equals, to lake his share in the world's 



THE RISKS OF REMOVAL, 1 7 

with my blessings to our children, and salutation to 
all our friends, I commend thee to the grace and bless- 
ing of the Lord." Every letter breathes the sweet 
sentiments of a faithful affection, as well as a deep 
religious spirit. 

John Winthrop had among the acquaintances 
whose counsel he prized one Robert Ryece, a Suf- 
folk antiquary, and to him he submitted the " Gen- 
eral Considerations." Perhaps the arguments in it 
for and against the New England enterprise were 
the very ones that the Massachusetts company con- 
sidered at its meetings. An interesting document 
has been preserved in which Mr. Ryece goes care- 
fully over the ground these arguments present, writ- 
ing like the conservative that he was. While guard- 
ing his friend against specious inductions, Mr. Ryece 
advises him, that in case affairs had gone so far that 
without his presence the chief undertakers of the 
plantation, who were men " of great goodness, qual- 
ity, and wisdom," would in no way stir in the busi- 
ness without him, and if sundry divines of great 
understanding and good judgment had answered all 
impediments and objections which his Suffolk friends 
were not aware of, there seemed to him no reason, 
and less conscience, that he should by holding back 
overthrow a work of so eminent consideration and 
consequence ; " and, therefore," says Mr. Ryece, 
" your friends do now rather encourage you to 

work. ... In his letters of this period there is nothing to distin- 
guish him from any other God-fearing Puritan of the time, excepting 
the ahnost feminine tenderness and sensitiveness of his disposition." 
— " History of England," vol. vii., p. 154. 



1 8 WIN THRO P AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

proceed, and do entreat the Almighty Lord of 
Hosts to go with you, to bless and govern you 
in all your ways." 

Winthrop seems to have consulted Mr. Ryece a 
second time, for that gentleman writes again, this 
time just two weeks before the Cambridge meeting, 
urging his friend to leave the proposed business to 
younger men ; and exclaiming: "How hard will it 
be for one brought up among books and learned 
men to live in a barbarous place, where is no learn- 
ing and less civility," or, as we should say, civiliza- 
tion. " The pipe goeth sweet," he reminds Win- 
throp, " till the bird be in the net ; many beautiful 
hopes are set before your eyes to allure you to 
danger. If in your youth you had been acquainted 
with navigation, you might have promised yourself 
more hope in this long voyage ; but for one of your 
years to undertake so large a task is seldom seen but 
to miscarry. To adventure your whole family upon 
so manifest uncertainties standeth not with your 
wisdom and long experience. ... I pray you 
pardon my boldness, that had rather err in what 
I think, than be silent in that I should speak." 

Thus was the leading spirit in this great emigra- 
tion warned and entreated by all considerations of 
prudence, and by reflections upon the advantages 
that might accrue to the church and the community 
if he would but remain at home ; but arguments 
addressed to his prudence, and to his love for his 
wife and children, who might be left alone and un- 
provided-for in a strange land, far from all hope of 
receiving help ; to his love of study, and to his 




SIR RICHARD • SALTONSTALL. FROM A PORTRAIT BY RF.MBRANT. 



20 W IN THRO P AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

habits, adjusted to the conveniences of civilization, 
failed. In spite of every argument, John Winthrop, 
a hero in a heroic age, persisted in carrying out the 
design which Providence and his worthy associates 
in the company had, as he fully believed, called him 
to. Margaret Winthrop, the " dear wife," was also 
equal to the occasion, and wrote constantly to her 
husband words of cheer and sympathy, assuring him 
that the good Lord would certainly " bless us in our 
intended purpose." 

The other members of the group of twelve require 
less attention at our hands, though they too were 
worthy men all, and doubtless they and their wives 
and advisers had gone through the same discussion 
that Mr. Winthrop so carefully followed. Sir Rich- 
ard Saltonstall, whose name heads the list, was very 
largely interested in the enterprise. He was de- 
scended from a former lord mayor of London, and 
had for grandson a governor of Connecticut, and 
was the honored ancestor of many bearing the same 
name in Boston to-day. He is remembered as having 
left in his will a bequest to Harvard College, and he 
was the largest contributor to the company's funds. 
Thomas Dudley, also descended from ancestors hon- 
ored in English history, and chosen into public ofifice 
every year of his life in the new land (being for four 
years governor and often deputy-governor), was one 
of the older members of the emigrant group. John 
Nowell was related to the dean of St. Paul's in the 
reign of Elizabeth, was sometime ruling elder in 
the church at Charlestown, and again one of the 
magistrates at Boston. William Vassall bore a name 



ENGLISH COUNTRY GENTLEMEN. 21 

afterwards honored among the colonists, but appears 
to have differed somewhat in religious matters from 
the majority at Boston, on which account he returned 
to England, though he came back again and lived a 
while at Scituate, in Plymouth colony. He made a 
fortune in Jamaica, when it was conquered by Penn 
and Venables, in the time of Cromwell. William 
Pynchon, a man of learning and piety, became the 
founder, first of Roxbury and then of Springfield, 
his family being still honored in Massachusetts. 
John Humfrey was one of the earliest persons inter- 
ested in the company. He is described as a godly 
man of special parts, of learning and activity. He 
was chosen deputy-governor at first, but his depart- 
ure from England was delayed until 1632, when he 
came over with his wife, Lady Susan, daughter of 
the Earl of Lincoln. He had been familiar with the 
conversation of patriotic nobles in the home of his 
father-in-law, who was the head of the now ducal 
house of Newcastle. Isaac Johnson was the man of 
largest estate among the group. He also was a son- 
in-law of the Earl of Lincoln. He rejoiced at the 
establishment of the colony, and considered his life 
well spent in its service. Governor Hutchinson calls 
him " the idol of Boston," and says that the people, 
when they died, ordered their bodies laid to rest 
around his in the grounds adjoining King's Chapel.* 
His wife is remembered as Arbella, after whom one 
of the vessels in which the party sailed for America 
was named. The other men of the Cambridge meet- 

* This current fancy is, it must be added, disbelieved by careful 
investigators. 



22 WINTHROP AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

ingwere Thomas Sharp, who did not remain long in 
New England, Michael West, Killam Browne, and 
William Colbron. Of them all it has been truly said 
that they were English country gentlemen of no 
inconsiderable fortunes, and of enlarged understand- 
ings, (measured by the standards of their time,) im- 
proved by collegiate education. They were most of 
them men who did not venture to America for the 
purpose of increasing their worldly goods, for they 
were too comfortable at home to make such an enter- 
prise attractive to them. 




III. 



GETTING READY FOR A VOYAGE. 



John Winthrop consulted his friends, but he did 
not forget his immediate family. That his wife 
sympathized fully in what he was about to do we 
already know. A few days before the Cambridge 
meeting John Winthrop, junior, wrote to his father 
that he, too, had given thought to the matter of 
" the business for New England," that he confidently 
believed it was '' of the Lord "; and that he had seen 
so much of the vanity of the world that he esteemed 
no more the diversities of countries than as so many 
inns, whereof the traveller that hath lodged in the 
best or the worst findeth no difference when he 
Cometh to his journey's end ; and he called that his 
country where he could most glorify God and enjoy 
the presence of his dearest friends.* He mentions 
certain " Conclusions " sent to him by his father, 
which, he said, he had shown to his uncle and aunt, 
and reported that they liked them well ; as for him- 
self, he thought them unanswerable. 

* John Winthrop, junior, had been an extensive traveller. He 
entered the naval service in 1627, going with the Duke of Bucking- 
ham to the relief of Rochelle ; and he took a tour of Europe in 1628, 
in which he was absent more than a year, visiting Leghorn, Venice, 
Padua, Amsterdam, and many places of less importance. 

23 



24 GETTING READY FOR A VOYAGE. 

These Conclusions of the elder Winthrop are in 
two parts, the first being general, relating to the 
plantation, and the second particular, relating spe- 
cially to the writer's own case. It was probably the 
latter portion which was submitted to the members 
of the family circle. In it Mr. Winthrop says that 
" divers of the chief undertakers " of the plantation 
would not go to America without him ; that his wife 
and such of his children as were come to years of 
discretion were voluntarily disposed to the same 
course, and that most of his friends consented to the 
change. We see that John Winthrop was thus fully 
settled in his mind. He entertained no doubts about 
his action ; he was, as he believed, " called of the 
Lord," and of the company. Another incentive was 
to be added. 

Mr. Matthew Cradock found that his departure 
was impracticable, and his name does not appear 
among those who had agreed to go, though he was 
one of the chief supporters of the enterprise. He 
therefore resigned his ofifice, and the company was 
called together in October, only five days after Mr. 
Winthrop's first attendance at the meetings, to 
choose a new governor. The gentlemen spoken of for 
the ofifice were Saltonstall, Johnson, Winthrop, and 
Humfrey. After serious deliberation it was " con- 
ceived to be for the especial good and advancement 
of their affairs " that Mr. Winthrop should take the 
chief office. It is said in the records that " extra- 
ordinary great commendations " had been received 
of him, both for his " integrity and sufificiency, as 
being one every way well-fitted and accomplished 



SUNDRY DIVINES INTERESTED. 25 

for the place of governor," and accordingly he was 
chosen with full consent, and immediately took the 
prescribed oath of office. 

This was an unlooked-for turn in affairs, and the 
new governor wrote to his wife that he was called to 
a further trust in the business of the plantation than 
he either expected or found himself fitted for ; but 
he added that he was cheerful and in health. Re- 
ferring to the same matter a few years later, he said 
that there were other gentlemen of more ability and 
far greater adaptedness for the position than he ; but 
his associates differed with him, and he modestly 
accepted their verdict. A few days were allowed 
for some necessary work, and then the governor re- 
turned to Groton for a brief visit to his wife ; but 
even there his time was largely occupied with mat- 
ters connected with the momentous step that he 
was about to take, and with efforts that he thought 
necessary to make to engage other suitable persons 
to go to New England with him. 

The few days passed with his family were pre- 
liminary to still more severe labors in preparation. 
A circular-letter was addressed from London on the 
twenty-seventh of October, to sundry divines of the 
Puritan faith, inviting them to convene on the ninth 
of the following month for the purpose of selecting 
"able and sufificient ministers to join in the work" 
of colonization.* Plans were also made to provide 
a godly and able surgeon to go to New England that 
spring. At about this time there was a notable 

* This letter is found in the " Life and Letters of John Winthrop," 
vol. i., p. 354. 



26 GETTING READY FOR A VOYAGE. 

change in the personality of the company. Those 
who had wished to have an interest in a business 
concern seem now to have desired to withdraw, and 
their places were taken by men of the serious and 
religious sort — the more discreet persons mentioned 
by Gorges. 

The ninth of November came and passed, and 
apparently the proposed conference of ministers 
took place ; at any rate, at a meeting of the com- 
pany, held on the twenty-fifth of that month, two 
earnest Puritan divines, Mr. Joseph Archer and Mr. 
Philip Nye, were received as freemen, and Mr. Na- 
thaniel Ward * was recommended for admission. 
Meantime Winthrop was writing to his good wife 
that he was pressed by " much business " ; that 
" divers great persons " had been questioned, but 
the cause was yet uncertain; that of^cial work came 
fast upon him, and he could set no time for his re- 
turn to Groton ; but he blessed God for giving him 
a wife who was a help and encouragement in his 
work, " wherein so many wives are so great an 
hindrance " to their husbands. 

While the multiplied cares of the preparation were 
upon him, Mr. Winthrop was called to give advice 
to his sister-in-law, Priscilla Fones, about the delicate 
attentions she was receiving from the Rev. Henry 

* This Mr. Ward afterwards compiled a code of laws for the 
colony, called the " Body of Liberties "; he is best known, however, 
as author of "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," a quaint and 
pedantic treatise on the license that he professed to find in New 
England, He did not come over until 1634, being finally instigated 
by a sentence of excommunication pronounced upon him by Laud, 
Bishop of London. 



PRISCILLA IS IMPORTUNED. 2/ 

Painter, of Exeter, afterwards a member of the cele- 
brated Westminister Assembly of divines ; and to 
his son Forth, who wished to marry Ursula, " my 
aunt Fones, her daughter." On the seventeenth of 
November widow Priscilla wrote that in her suitor 
she saw the traits that she chiefly aimed at in a hus- 
band, " grace and godliness, with gifts suitable to his 
calling," though in outward estate he came short of 
any that had yet been moved to her ; but that in 
spite of all his virtues, she desired to hear no more 
of the suit, though all her friends persuaded her that 
it would be best for her to change her estate. The 
reverend man's importunity and " pains in coming 
so far" bred such distraction of mind in her that she 
knew not what to do, and she confessed that she was 
very fearful about changing her condition. 

On the same day Fones Winthrop wrote to his 
father that he used his pen because letters could not 
blush, and that bashfulness would seal up his mouth 
in silence were he to attempt to speak on the tender 
topic. He plainly entertained no doubts about 
changing his condition, but expressed himself as not 
wishing to undertake any enterprise of moment 
without his father's knowledge, consent, and license, 
though he did desire to be blessed in time by the 
"holy ordinance of marriage" with his fair cousin. 
Alas for the hopes of poor Ursula and her loving 
cousin Forth, he died not many months later, and 
she was left almost a widow. The course of the 
loves of Priscilla and Henry seems to have run 
smooth, for, after a little diplomacy, they were duly 
married. 



2^ GETTING READY FOR A VOYAGE. 

A week later Mr. Winthrop writes to his wife that 
the Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, might be expected 
at Groton on " Thursday or Friday," and that she 
ought to get him to stay a night if she could. At 
the Christmas-tide Winthrop was absent from Lon- 
don, presumably spending the time with his house- 
hold at Groton ; though he was again in the capital 
hard at work by the middle of January, but enjoying 
" fowls, puddings, etc.," that his good wife had sent 
to him. All his thoughts were turned towards 
the great venture, the time for which was fast 
approaching. 

Winthrop promises his wife to leave fifteen hun- 
dred pounds with his friends for her support until 
she should be able to follow him to the New World, 
— an ample sum, surely, if we take into consideration 
the greater value of money at the time. John Win- 
throp, junior, who had been as we know a great 
traveller, and had an ingenious mind, writes to his 
father at this time about " a rude model " of a wind- 
mill that he had invented, which he thought might 
be " applied to many laborious uses, as any kind of 
mills, corn-mills, saw-mills, etc.," and he desired that 
New England should reap the benefit, " for whose 
sake," indeed, he said, " it was invented. Et soli 
Deo gloriay 

The letters from husband to wife become more 
and more tender as the moment for separation gets 
nearer ; but in the midst of all the pathos of parting 
comes an intimation that good sister Priscilla hath 
written so earnestly to the reverend suitor not to 
trouble her more that she fears he will take her in 



GLIMPSES OF COURTSHIP. 29 

earnest and not appear again, for which cause the 
grave president of the colony of Massachusetts Bay 
is besought to " send him word to come as soon as 
he can," for the coy widow would speak with him. 
The glimpses of courtship that we catch in the hurry 
of preparations for the serious enterprise of another 
sort, and among the tender and pathetic words pass- 
ing from husband and wife, give a dash of humanity 
to the picture that is delightful to be observed in the 
life of the hero and the heroine of the tale of these 
stern Puritan pioneers. 

February opens, and Winthrop says to Margaret : 
" My sweet wife, thy love is such to me, and so great 
is the bond between us, that I should neglect all 
others to hold correspondency of letters with thee. 
I purpose, if God will, to be with thee upon 
Thursday come se'nnight, and then I must take my 
farewell of thee for a summer's day and a winter's 
day. The Lord our God will, I hope, send us a happy 
meeting again in his good time. ... I wrote to 
Mr. P." 

A few days later he writes : " My sweet wife, I 
wrote to thee yesterday, and this day our company 
hath spent in prayer and fasting, and the Lord hath 
been pleased to assist us graciously ; blessed be his 
name ; I doubt not but thou and all our family shall 
have part in the answer of our prayers. This even- 
ing, about ten of the clock, Mr. Painter came to me: 
he intends to be at Groton on Tuesday next." We 
may suppose that the matter between " Mr. P." and 
Priscilla was settled " on Tuesday." 

The last week in February was the time that John 



30 GETTING READY TOR A VOYAGE. 

Winthrop made his final visit to Groton. Soon after, 
he went from London to Southampton, where he took 
ship for America on the twenty-second of March ; but 
there were tedious detentions, owing to adverse 
winds, and it was not until April 8th that they 
weighed anchor and the long voyage actually began. 
All this time there was as brisk a correspondence 
between husband and wife as the circumstances ad- 
mitted, and in one of the latest letters of the husband, 
written from aboard the Arbella off Cowes, March 
28, 1630, among loving messages for many friends 
and relatives, there occurs this sentence : " Mondays 
and Fridays at five of the clock at night we shall 
meet in spirit till we meet in person." " And now, my 
sweet soul," he adds, " I must once again take my 
last farewell of thee in old England. It goeth very 
near my heart to leave thee. . . . Thine where- 
soever, Jo : Winthrop." 

While the ships were detained by adverse winds, 
the leaders of the company prepared a document 
which they left behind to be printed and distributed, 
for the removal of suspicions and misconstructions 
of their intentions. In this noble and pathetic paper 
we have the fundamental thoughts by which all theit 
course was to be directed, by which it had already 
been guided. Addressing " the rest of their brethren 
in and of the Church of England," they express a 
suspicion that there may be among them some 
wanting in "tenderness of affection " towards them, 
or not having clear enough intelligence of their 
course to be able to appreciate their peculiar way, 
and to these they attempt to explain their course. 



LOVE FOR THE CHURCH OF EiVGLA/VD. 3 1 

While devotedly attached to the church of their 
fathers, they evidently made a distinction between 
those traits in it which they conceived to be funda- 
mental, and those that were of secondary importance, 
clinging to the one class and having no sympathy 
whatever with the other.* 

Evidently the members of Winthrop's band felt 
much as those who went with Francis Higginson 
felt, when they united with him in saying they went 
to the New World not as " Separatists from the 
Church of England," though they owned that they 
could but separate themselves from the corruptions 
in it ; in order that they might " practice the positive 
part of the Church reformation, and to propagate 
the Gospel in America." John Winthrop could 
truly write: "We esteem it our honor to call the 
Church of England our dear mother; and cannot 
part from our native country, where she specially 
resideth, without much sadness of heart and many 
tears in our eyes." He had been for too many years 
an humble and faithful worshipper in the parish 
church at Groton to renounce the communion of his 
fathers, and the very next year he refused to gratify 
Roger Williams, who wished the men of Boston to 
make a public declaration of repentance for having 
had communion with the churches of England. 
Winthrop not only never repented of this, but he 
doubtless gloried in it. The gentlemen of the 
Massachusetts colony were so careful in this respect 
that when the Rev. Ralph Smith desired to go to 

* On this point see " The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of 
the Massachusetts Bay," by George E. Ellis, D.D., chap, ii., es- 
pecially p. 54. 



32 GETTING READY FOR A VOYAGE. 

Salem with Higginson, he was only permitted to do 
so upon giving an agreement in writing not to preach 
in public or in private without the governor's per- 
mission, because there was suspicion that he was a 
" Separatist " ; whereby, it appears, says the historian 
Hubbard, " how apprehensive the first founders of 
the Massachusetts were of any that might become 
an occasion of disturbance " on this ground.* 

While the ships of the expedition were anchored 
off Cowes, the governor began a diary that be- 
came the mine from which the early history of 
Massachusetts has been dug. He dated the first 
entry " Easter Monday, March 29, 1629-30." This 
journal was continued up to a short time before 
its author's death, and though there are many gaps 
which were intended to be filled when an opportunity 
of leisure arrived, it is very full, and deeply interesting. 

Eleven or twelve vessels of different sizes w^ere 
provided to transport the company, among which 
were the Arbella, named in honor of Mrs. Johnson, 
and the Mayflozvcr, which had carried the Pilgrims 
to Plymouth ten years before. Only four of these 
were ready to sail at the appointed time. The 
Arbella was one, and on its deck, on the sixth of 
April, Mr. Cradock said his last farewell to his 
successor in of^ce, and from its " steerage " the 
captain fired three shots " for a farewell," before the 
party steered out into the broad Atlantic, not to 
cast anchor again until the seventy-sixth day, Satur- 
day, the twelfth of June. 

* Mr. Smith verified these suspicions. He went to Plymouth and 
" exercised his gifts," but even the Separatists there were forced to 
ask him to " Liy down his ministry," and he returned to Massachu- 
setts to give trouble. 




IV. 

THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

The voyage to America was no pleasure excursion. 
We may well imagine the serious occupations of the 
passengers in the several vessels. It was a long time 
before such trips were taken with regularity and 
without trepidation. The laws of ocean navigation 
were not well understood ; international law even 
was in its infancy, (Hugo Grotius had, in fact, laid its 
foundations but five years before this) ; pirates like 
Sir Francis Drake were universally honored ; and ves- 
sels sailing on the broad ocean as those of Winthrop's 
fleet sailed were open to attack from any adventurous 
captain, carrying a different flag, Avho thought him- 
self stronger than they. 

The ten dreary weeks of the voyage of Winthrop 
were marked by Sundays sacred to the completest 
rest and the most earnest devotional services; and 
by " frequent and constant religious exercises of 
catechism, prayer and preaching, on Sundays and 
week-days," which Dr. Ellis thinks must have tried 
the patience of the sailors and servants as much as 
they " fed the joys of piety in the consecrated hearts 
of the exiles.* 

* The " Puritan Age and Rule," p. 56. 
33 



34 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

Mr, Winthrop was wont to exercise himself in 
"prophesying," as sermonizing was then called, and 
he has left a discourse entitled " A Model of Christian 
Charity," which is probably a record of some of his 
efforts on board the Arbella. In this sermon there 
was an elaborate discussion of Christian charity, 
marked by the tender traits which we have observed 
in its author's correspondence, followed by careful 
deductions as to the mode of living by which its 
teachings were to be made the foundation of a com- 
monwealth that should "be a praise and a glory," 
and not " open the mouths of enemies to speak evil 
of the ways of God, and all professors for God's 
sake." " We must be willing," he said, " to abridge 
ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of 
other's necessities ; we must uphold a familiar com- 
merce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, 
and liberality ; we must delight in each other, make 
other's condition our own, rejoice together, mourn 
together, labor and suffer together, always having 
before our eyes our commission and community in 
the work." 

There were dangers from violent storms, which 
might destroy greater vessels than theirs ; and on 
one Lord'-s Day we read in Winthrop's diary that 
the tempest continued all the day, " and the sea 
raged and tossed exceedingly ; yet, through God's 
mercy, we were very comfortable, and few or none 
sick, but had opportunity to keep the Sabbath, and 
Mr. Phillips preached twice that day." The greatest 
alarm overtook the Arbella soon after they left Yar- 
mouth, where they had been told that ten sail of 



AN EXCITING INCIDENT. 35 

" Dunkirkers " * were awaiting their coming. On a 
certain morning eight ships were seen astern, having 
more wind than the Winthrop fleet, and coming up 
apace. The gun-room and gun-deck of the Arbella 
were cleared, all hammocks were taken down, ord- 
nance was loaded, powder-chests were made ready, 
twenty-five landmen were quartered among the sea- 
men, appointed for muskets, and duly written down 
for their respective quarters. The race continued 
until noon came, and the pursuers were still gaining. 
Preparation was then made for a fight ; cabins that 
stood in the way of managing the guns were taken 
hastily down ; beds, and all other kinds of inflamma- 
ble articles that were likely to take fire, were cast 
into the sea ; the long-boats were heaved out ; the 
Lady Arbella and the other women and the children 
were removed to the lower deck for safety ; and the 
men were armed with muskets and other weapons 
and with instruments for fire-works. Then, for an 
experiment, the captain (Peter Milborne) " shot a ball 
of wild-fire, fastened to an arrow, out of a cross-bow, 
which burnt in the water a good time." All things 
being thus fitted," says Winthrop, " we went to 
prayer upon the upper deck," where they might 
watch as well as pray, doubtless, for these heroes 
never forgot that they needed not only to trust in 
God, but also to keep their powder dry. This was 
the traditional advice of Oliver Cromwell, though 
given some years later. 

* " England was at war with Spain at the time ; and Spanish 
cruisers seem to have been swarming about Dunkirk and other ports 
of the Spanish Netherlands." — "Life and Letters of John Win- 
throp," vol. ii., p. 14. 



36 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

The approaching ships were eight against four, 
and the emigrants thought that the moments were 
serious ; but not a woman or a child or a man showed 
fear, for, as Winthrop writes, their confidence was in 
the Lord of Hosts, " and the courage of our captain 
and his care and diligence did much encourage us." 
It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when the 
captain found the strangers were within a league of 
him, and not wishing that the issue should come in 
the night, he decided to show that he had no fear. 
He therefore tacked about and stood to meet the 
eight vessels, when, to the great joy of all, they were 
perceived to be friends. " Every ship, as they met, 
saluted each other, and the musketeers discharged 
their small shot," and the dread and danger was 
turned into " mirth and friendly entertainment." 

Thus the days passed, in prayers for blessings to 
come, in thankfulness for blessings received and dan- 
gers passed, in careful instructions and encourage- 
ment, in hope for and thoughtful discussion of the 
country they were going to and the biblical com- 
monwealth they expected to found. Every changing 
phase of nature was carefully noticed ; and Mr. Win- 
throp sets down in his journal some of the phenom- 
ena that he observed, as, for example, that when 
they were at a distance of two hundred leagues from 
land, they encountered fowls flying and swimming; 
that the sun did not give so much heat as in Eng- 
land ; that cold weather came with the winds from 
whatsoever direction they blew ; that the new moon, 
when it first appeared, was smaller than in England ; 
and that the pole star was much beneath what it was 



STRAWBERRIES AT CAPE ANN. 37 

in England. They were not tedious days, we may 
suppose, though we may be sure that the adven- 
turers were not sorry when at last, on the seventy- 
second day, " there came a smell of the shore, like 
the smell of a garden," and when, four days later, 
they were able to drop anchor in the harbor of Salem. 

Firing off two pieces of ordnance, they sent a skiff 
to the ship of William Peirce of London, which. they 
saw, and he came on board, and afterwards returned 
to bring Governor Endicott to them. There was a 
friendly welcome to the new-comers, and they were 
invited to go ashore, where the assistants and some 
other gentlemen and the women supped on a " good 
venison pasty and good beer." At night most of 
them returned to the ship, though the women, "like 
Noah's dove, finding sure footing on the firm land, 
returned no more to their ark floating on the unsta- 
ble waves." The more common people on board 
took the occasion to go ashore on the other side of 
the harbor towards Cape Ann, where they had as 
good a feast on fresh strawberries as the gentlefolk 
had on their pasty and beer. The following day 
Governor Winthrop first saw the natives of the land, 
for Masconomo, sagamore of the Agawam, came on 
board and spent the day, bidding the party a cheer- 
ful welcome to the land from which the tribes of his 
fathers were fast fading away. Almost the first news 
received on landing was that there had been a gen- 
eral conspiracy among the natives a few months 
previous looking to the extirpation of all the white 
faces. 

Though but two ships of the fleet had then arrived 



38 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

at Salem, there was a formal " landing," and proper 
salutes were fired in honor of the governor and his 
party. The prospect was dismal for Winthrop. 
Higginson was wasting under a hectic fever ; eighty 
of those \\A\o had come with him had died during 
the winter ; many others were sick and weak ; the 
supplies were almost exhausted, and the remnant of 
the ejnigrants, threatened by famine, now thronged 
about the new arrivals begging for bread. No won- 
der that we read that the place pleased Winthrop 
not, though the valiant and enthusiastic Captain 
John Smith had said of it : " Of all the parts of the 
world I have yet seen not inhabited, I would rather 
live here than anywhere." 

Without delay the governor and some of the prin- 
cipal men started on foot to look for a more suitable 
place for the new settlement, expecting to find it " at 
the bottom of the bay." It was the seventeenth of 
June, now memorable for another event annually 
celebrated on that spot. They visited Mr. Samuel 
Maverick, who was well established in the first per- 
manent house in the Bay colony at Winnisimmet, 
now Chelsea * ; Mr. Thomas Walford, at Charton or 
Charleton ; and, perhaps, Mr. Blaxton, or Blackstone, 
domesticated in a cottage on the western shore of 
Shawmut. These were Church-of-England men who 
had come out in 1623, under Robert Gorges, sup- 
ported by the whole power of the Council for New 

* It has long been held that Maverick erected his house on Nod- 
dle's Island ; but Judge Mellen Chamberlain has shown that it was 
at Winnisimmet. — See Transactions of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, Jan., 1885. 




2 2 



o S 



5 o 



40 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

England.* The party returned by way of Nantas- 
ket, where Winthrop was called upon to settle a 
difificulty that had arisen between the emigrants who 
had come by the ship Mary and John and Captain 
Squeb, who, though under contract to deliver his 
human freight at the mouth of the Charles River, 
had left them at Nantasket at the end of May, in a 
merciless way, as they thought. At the governor's 
summons, the captain came ashore and the trouble 
was quickly settled. It was difficult at that day to 
determine where "the mouth of the Charles River" 
was, and it seems that there were obstacles in the 
way of navigating the river itself with a vessel of the 
size of the one the captain commanded. 

The result of this little trip of three days was that 
Winthrop determined to settle at Charleton ; but 
there was so much sickness and distress that the 
others did not all follow his example, but for one 
reason and another settled " dispersedly," as Thomas 
Dudley, the deputy-governor, wrote in his account of 
the beginnings of the Massachusetts colony. Some 
planted on the Mystic, at what is now Medford ; 
some at Watertown ; and still others at Roxbury f 
and Dorchester. This dispersion troubled the minds 
of some of them, " but help it we could not," said 
Dudley, and the time was " too short to deliberate 
any longer, lest the winter should surprise " them, 
before they had built forts or houses, to protect them 
from the Indians as well as from the wet and cold. 

* Winsor's " Memorial History," vol. i., ]i. 75. 
f Named Rocksbury on account of the rough and rocky surface of 
its territory. 



THE GREAT HOUSE AT CHARLETON. 4 1 

The twelfth of July is given as the date of the be- 
ginning of Charlestown, where Winthrop, Salton- 
stall, Dudley, Wilson, Bradstreet, and others with 
their followers took up their abodes as promptly as 
possible, though it appears to have been several 
weeks before they all accomplished the work of re- 
moval. The governor and several of the members 
of the company occupied the " Great House," as it 
Avas called, which they found ready for them, and the 
multitude lived in uncomfortable tents and booths, 
which they set up on Town Hill. Those were dis- 
mal days : the long passage had fixed sickness and 
scurvy upon the emigrants ; the wet lodgings in- 
creased the distempers ; a lack of fresh water made 
matters worse, and now there was not a hut in which 
there was not lamentation and woe for the dying and 
the dead. Many graves soon marked the sides of 
the hill. In consequence of the great calamities, Mr. 
Winthrop recommended a fast to be kept on the 
thirtieth of July, at which time also the first church 
organization was made, according to the form already 
established at Salem, on the basis of separation, and 
Mr. John Wilson was chosen pastor. 

Every thing seemed to indicate that Charleton was 
to be the capital of the colony,* but the kind heart 

* Edward Johnson, in his " Wonder-Working Providence," chap- 
ter xvii., says that the settlers promptly determined to hold an elec- 
tion of officers, for what reason we know not, unless it was to assert 
their independence, and that accordingly a court was called for the 
twenty-third of August on board of the Arbella, on which occasion 
the form was gone through with of choosing Mr. Winthrop governor, 
and voting new commissions to the officers who with him had already 
been elected by the company in England. 



42 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

of Mr. Blaxton, touched by the distress among the 
settlers, invited them to remove to the three-hilled 
peninsula (called Shawmut and Tri-mountain), where 
there was fresh water in abundance and other advan- 
tages. The invitation was accepted without hesita- 
tion ; the frame of the governor's house was carried 
over, and the people transferred themselves as quickly 
as they could. The new site was an uneven rocky 
promontory, abounding with hollows and swamps, 
and connected with the mainland by an isthmus so 
narrow that the tide often washed completely over 
it. Mr. Blaxton won the thanks of generations by 
his polite and Christian invitation to the sufferers at 
Charleton. 

The removal to Shawmut had so far progressed 
by the seventh of September that a court of Assist- 
ants was held on that day, and it was ordered that 
the name of the settlement should be Boston. An- 
other court of Assistants was convened at Charleton 
on the twenty-eighth of September ; but after that 
the courts were held at Boston. 

We cannot tell exactly when the different settlers 
made the change of abode ; we do not know even 
when the governor himself removed ; but it is certain 
that the movement was hastened by the death of one 
of the most loved of the company. Lady Arbella 
Johnson, had died very soon after the arrival at 
Salem, " coming from a paradise of pleasure and 
plenty in the family of a noble earl, into a wilder- 
ness of wants," taking " New England on her way to 
heaven," as the quaint Cotton Mather expresses it. 
On the thirtieth of September the death of Mr. 



DEATH OF MR. JOHNSON. 



43 



Johnson occurred, and it cast a gloom over the 
colony. His lot as selected is that now bounded by 
School, Tremont, Court, and Washington streets, 
comprising the first place of burial in the town, and 




BLAXTON S LOT. 



in it he was tenderly laid to rest.* After this great 
affliction the work of removal from Charleton pro- 
gressed rapidly. 

* This account of Mr. Johnson's burial, given by Chief- Justice 
Sewall and repeated by Governor Hutchinson, is doubted ; but 
whether Mr. Johnson was buried there or not, the spot became the 
first place used for such purposes, and for thirty years it was the only 
one. — See Shurtleff's "A Topographical Description of Boston," 
p. 184. 



44 THE FOUNDING OF BOSTON. 

Thus the promontory of Shawmut became the 
capital of New England, and thus it received the 
name that it still bears, a name first written upon 
American maps by Prince Charles at the solicitation 
of John Smith, but placed by him at York, on the 
coast of Maine. It was evidently given to its pres- 
ent locality by reason of the attachment felt by 
many of the new inhabitants for Boston in England, 
over the parish church of which presided that John 
Cotton whom we have seen calling at the Groton 
home of John Winthrop, a man whom he loved so 
greatly that he wished him to rest awhile beneath 
his roof, even though absent at the time himself. 







V. 

MARGARET WINTHROP COMES OVER. 

Governor Winthrop left behind him in Eng- 
land, besides his sons John and Forth, who were 
old enough to have accompanied him, but who in- 
tended to wait until Mrs. Winthrop would go with 
them, a son named Henry, who was to have been 
one of the passengers on the Arbella. This mem- 
ber of the family had been not in all respects a son 
after his father's heart. He had been quite an 
adventurer in his youth — he was but twenty-two 
years of age when his father left for America — and 
there are expressions in his father's letters which 
show some disapproval of his life and companion- 
ships. Henry was among the early planters on the 
island of Barbadoes, where he had been several 
years previously, and had become involved in 
schemes for trade and colonization, which appear to 
have proved unfortunate for his character as well as 
his purse and his good father's purse. Doubtless, 
however, he had gained experience that would have 
been of value in the new enterprise of the Massachu- 
setts company. 

Henry went ashore while the Arbella was detained 
by the adverse winds, for the purpose of obtaining 

45 



46 MARGARET WIN THRO P COMES OVER. 

an additional supply of provisions, and on account of 
the high sea was unable to regain the vessel before 
she sailed. He followed on the Talbot, another of 
the fleet, and reached Salem on the second of July. 
The passage was a very hard one, for the passengers 
were afflicted by the small-pox, of which disease 
fourteen died on the ocean, though Henry escaped. 
On the day of his arrival at Salem he was led by 
curiosity to visit some Indian wigwams, and seeing 
a canoe on the opposite side of a creek, he plunged 
into the stream to swim across to obtain it, in order 
to save several miles of walking. He was taken 
with a cramp in the water not far from the shore, 
and drowned. 

Two weeks later John Winthrop wrote for the 
first time to his absent wife (from " Charleton in 
New England ") by the hands of Arthur Tindale, her 
brother, who had come on the Arbe/la, but returned 
on the Lio7i, the first vessel that went back. In this 
letter he wasted no words, thinking that the details 
of the voyage would be given by the bearer. He 
said : 

"We had a long and troublesome passage, but the 
Lord made it safe and easy for us. . . . I am so over- 
spread with business that I have no time for these or 
other mine own private occasions. I only write now that 
thou mayest know that I yet live, and am mindful of thee 
in all my affairs. . . . My son Henry ! my son Henry ! 
ah, poor child ! Yet it grieves me much more for my 
dear daughter. The Lord strengthen and comfort her 
heart to bear this cross patiently. ... I shall expect 
thee next summer, if the Lord please, and by that time 



PEAS, PUDDINGS, AND FISH. 



47 



I hope to be provided for thy comfortable entertainment. 
My most sweet wife, be not disheartened ; trust in the 
Lord, and thou shalt see his faithfulness. ... I kiss 
and embrace thee, my dear wife, and all my children." 

Careful John Winthrop wrote no more than was 
necessary by Arthur ; he feared the letter might 




THE GREAT ELM IN THE COMMON. DESTROYED I\ 1876. 

miscarry, for he found him "the old man still," 
whatever his weakness was ; but he took another 
opportunity, a week later, to give more particulars. 
Then he added that though the fare in the New 
World was but peas, puddings, and fish, quite coarse 
in comparison to what he had been accustomed to, 



48 MARGARET WINTHROP COMES OVER. 

it seemed sweet and wholesome to him, and he 
could truly say that he desired nothing better. 
Other matters did trouble him, however, for the 
relief from restraint that was felt by some of the 
emigrants made them restless ; they were not at all 
bent on the establishment of a religious common- 
wealth, and could not all bring themselves to prac- 
tise the good precepts of Winthrop embodied in his 
" Model of Christian Charity." " Satan," he wrote, 
"bends his forces against us, and stirs up his instru- 
ments to all kind of mischief, so that I think here 
are some persons who never showed so much wick- 
edness in England as they have done here." Never- 
theless, he urges Margaret not to be discouraged by 
any thing that she may hear, for he saw no cause to 
repent his coming, and experience had showed that 
the tenderest women and the youngest children 
might safely be brought over. 

Mr. Winthrop gives careful instructions regarding 
the voyage ; as that she should be warmly clothed, 
have a sufficiency of fresh provisions, meal, eggs 
(put up in salt or ground malt), butter, oatmeal, 
peas, and fruit, and strong chests, well locked, in 
which to keep them on the voyage. Margaret was 
to be sure to have two or three skillets, frying-pans 
and stewing-pans, large and small, drinking-vessels, 
pewter vessels, a case to boil a pudding in, a store of 
linen to use at sea, and a quantity of " sack," to be 
distributed among the sailors. For physic she was 
to provide a pound of Dr. Wright's electuary, and 
some other articles, as saltpetre and nutmegs, the 
latter to be grated or sliced when used. For use in 



FAMILY LETTERS. 49 

the colony, Mrs. Winthrop was desired to bring bed- 
ding, linen and woollen ; brass, pewter, and leather 
bottles ; drinking-horns, axes (whatever they cost), 
candles, soap, suet, and great and small augers, " and 
many other necessaries which I can't now think of." 

To his eldest son, Winthrop sends at the same 
time a journal of the voyage, besides a very long 
business letter, in which we find the reasons why it 
was necessary to send home so promptly for pro- 
visions, which one might have supposed a rich new 
land would have supplied, and particular directions 
about various members of the family and even de- 
pendents and others more remotely connected with 
him. As for the country itself, he observes that it 
differed little from England ; that he had noticed 
but two days more hot than in Suffolk ; that the 
land is as good as he ever saw there, and that he 
had observed none so bad as he had seen at home. 
" Here is sweet air, fair rivers, and plenty of springs, 
and the water better than in England. Here can be 
no want of any thing to those who bring means to 
raise out of the earth and sea." 

No doubt Mr. Winthrop believed all that he wrote 
about the blessings he described ; but sometimes it 
seems as though he did not find it quite easy to be 
entirely happy. On the ninth of September, for 
example, he wrote, " that though the lady Arbella is 
dead, and good Mr. Higginson, and my servant, old 
Waters," yet many mercies were mixed with the 
corrections of Providence, and he praised God that 
he had many occasions of comfort, though he did 
hope that the " days of affliction " would soon have 



50 MARGARET WINTHROP COMES OVER, 

an end, and he sustained himself by saying, signifi- 
cantly : "It is enough that we shall have heaven, 
though we should pass through hell to it." Winthrop 
magnified his mercies, and seems to have repeated his 
list of them frequently, to keep his heart from break- 
ing under the combined load of care for the planta- 
tion, rendered hard by the instruments stirred up 
by " Sathan," his solicitude for his absent ones, and 
his sorrows for those whom he had lost. He writes: 
" I long for the time when I may see thy sweet face 
again, and the faces of my dear children," though he 
owned with sorrow that his much business " hath 
made me too often forget Mondays and Fridays." 

It is interesting to read the family letters in con- 
nection with the records of the public meetings, and 
to see that while the governor was attending to the 
cases of discipline and doctrine, he was giving minute 
details to his wife and son about their approaching 
voyage. Thus, on the seventh of September, Thomas 
Morton was brought before the court for sentence^ 
and it was ordered that he should be " set in the 
bilboes and sent prisoner to England," his goods 
seized to pay the charges of his trial and to satisfy 
the Indians whom he had cheated, and his house 
burned down in their presence as a sign of the dis- 
pleasure of the well-meaning with his action. At 
the same time he was writing to his son to bring 
forty hogsheads of meal " well cleansed from the 
bran," and store of peas, cheese, malt, oatmeal, 
pepper, ginger, rugs, verjuice (the juice of unripe 
fruits), oil, pitch, tar, old cable to make oakum, 
cows, goats, sheep, garlic and onions, alum and 



THE FIRST TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 5 I 

aloes, oiled skins, " some worsted ribbing, several 
sizes," and conserve of red roses. While he was 
beckoning with one hand to good and true men to 
come over from England, he was signing a law to 
the effect that " No person shall plant in any place 
within the limits of this patent, without leave from 
the governor and assistants, or a major part of 
them." 

There are many contrasts in the life of the gover- 
nor as described in his letters and in the public 
records. On one page we read: " I have lost twelve 
of my family," whom he enumerates ; the " Lord 
hath stripped us of some principal persons, Mr. 
Johnson and his lady," etc. ; and yet, " My dear wife 
we are here in a paradise. Though we have not 
beef and mutton, etc., yet, God be praised, we want 
them not, our Indian corn answers for all. Yet here 
is fowl and fish in great plenty." On another we 
find the governor forming himself into the first 
American temperance society, as he writes under 
date, October 25, 1630: "The governor, upon con- 
sideration of the inconveniences which had grown 
up in England by drinking one to another, restrained 
it at his own table, and wished others to do the like, 
so as it grew by little and little into disuse." 

At this period negotiations were in progress for 
the sale of the homestead at Groton, so that the 
family might be ready to leave in the spring unin- 
cumbered. In New England the supply of food 
was slowly running down, and there were anxious 
thoughts about the welfare of the ship Lion, which, 
we remember, had been hastily sent for supplies. 



52 MARGARET WINTHROP COMES OVER. 

Six months passed and the Lion did not appear. 
Winthrop had his last batch of bread in his oven, 
and doubtless the poorer inhabitants of Boston were 
not so well off ; in fact, we are told that at the time 
when the general stores had been so reduced that a 
fast had been appointed to pray for relief, Mr. Win- 
throp was in the act of giving the last handful of 
meal from his barrel to a poor man in distress, when 
a ship was spied entering the harbor with provisions 
enough for all. It was the Lion. The fast was 
turned to a thanksgiving, and the first regularly- 
appointed Thanksgiving Day, held in 1631, is now 
celebrated as the birthday of Washington. On the 
Lion there came a young minister of whom we shall 
hear more, Roger Williams, an Oxford graduate. 

The governor was now anxiously awaiting the ar- 
rival of his loved ones. The estate was at last sold 
for a price smaller than it was thought that it ought 
to bring, and Winthrop was still sending to his wife 
and son the detailed instructions about sheep-skins 
and lamb-skins and calves-skins and hats and woollen 
cloth and mill-stones, and all the increasing list of 
articles that greater acquaintance with the new life 
taught him might be needed. Meantime Sir Rich- 
ard Saltonstall, the Rev. Mr. Wilson, and other good 
friends had left the plantation, some of them never 
to return, and the responsibilities of those who re- 
mained were increased. 

On the fourth of July, 163 1, the governor launched 
a bark named the Blessing of the Bay, from a place 
on the Mystic near his summer home, the "Ten- 
Hills Farm." It was on this farm that the governor 



A WAKEFUL NIGHT. 53 

took an after-supper walk on the eleventh of Octo- 
ber, which came near having serious results for the 
plantation. He took his fowling-piece in his hand, 
apparently looking for wolves that had been killing 
his stock, and when distant not over a half mile from 
home it became so dark that he mistook his path, 
and was unable to find it again. In his unsuccessful 
wanderings he came to an Indian hut, where he 
made a good fire by means of a " match," which he 
always carried in his pocket, and laid himself down 
on some mats that he found. (He is careful to say 
that he always carried besides a match, a compass, 
and in summer some "snakeweed," one of the 
useful vegetable astringents.) Unable to sleep, he 
spent the night singing psalms, getting wood, and 
walking up and down. Near morning it began to 
rain, and the lost governor made shift by means of 
a long pole to climb up into the hut, where an In- 
dian squaw found him ; but he barred her out, 
though she remained a great while trying to get in. 
He managed to find his way home after daylight, 
and learned that his servants had been much per- 
plexed for him, " having walked about and shot off 
pieces, and halloed all the night," but he heard them 
not. 

Thesummer of 1631 was almost passed before the 
sale of the homestead and the settlement of the 
family affairs made it possible for Margaret Win- 
throp to turn her face westward. Just before that 
time she wrote to John Winthrop, junior: 

" My dear Son : Since it hath pleased God to make a 
way for me, and to give me encouragement for my 



54 MARGARET WINTHROP COMES OVER. 

voyage, and uphold my heart that it faints not, I do re- 
solve by his assistance to cast myself upon him, and to 
go for N : E ; as speedily as I can with any convenience. 
Therefore, my good son, let me entreat thee to take 
order for our going as soon as thou canst, for winter will 
come on apace." 

It is evident that however much these good emi- 
grants tried to keep cheerful in the face of such ex- 
periences as they expected to encounter, they always 
felt that it was a cross, or, as they said, a duty to 
" suffer what God hath laid out for us, and to be 
cheerful." 

As Mr. Winthrop had been engaged, just before 
his voyage, in settling matters matrimonial, so his 
good Margaret was likewise employed before she 
sailed. She writes of the widow of Henry Winthrop : 

"I rejoice much to hear that Mr. Cottington bears such 
good affections to my daughter ; I trust there will be 
further proceeding. I have heard him very well reported 
of, to be a religious man and one of good means. [We 
recollect that Mr. Painter was deficient in this respect.] 
Mr. Wilson had some speech with me about it, and did 
very much desire to know her virtues ; I gave her the 
best commendations that I could. I shall daily expect 
his coming. He shall be very welcome. P. S. — As 
soon as I had written these, Mr. Cottington came to see 
us, but would not stay all night. He hath not yet made 
his mind known to my daughter, but is gone to Sudbury 
to Mr. Wilson. I do verily believe it will be a match, 
and she shall be very happy in a good husband." 

What " Mr. Wilson " said we are not told ; but the 



A SECOND THANKSGIVING. 55 

fair widow did not become " Mistress Cottington " ; 
one Robert Feake intervened and took her. 

It was about the middle of August that the large 
remnant of the governor's family, with the exception 
of two sons, Forth and Deane, sailed for New Eng- 
land on the same ship, Lion, that had several times 
before made the trip. John Eliot, afterwards the 
apostle to the Indians, was one of the passengers. 
On the voyage Margaret's infant daughter, Ann, 
died and was committed to the deep. On the sec- 
ond of November William Peirce, captain, arrived off 
Nantasket, and was happy to be the one to present 
to the governor his good wife Margaret, his eldest 
son with his wife, and the other children, in good 
health, after the dangers of the passage that they 
had so much feared. The plantation was in sym- 
pathy with the loving husband and wife on their 
happy reunion ; they were honored by volleys of 
shot as they landed on the fourth of November, and 
for divers days they were presented " great store of 
provisions, as fat hogs, kids, venison, poultry, geese, 
partridges, etc., so as the like joy and manifestation 
of love had never been seen in New England. It 
was a great marvel that so much people and such 
store of provisions could be gathered together at so 
few hours' notice." A week later there was a second 
Thanksgiving Day in Boston ; and a few days after 
that the governor of Plymouth came up to offer his 
personal congratulations to his " much honored and 
beloved friends," 



VI. 



THE LAY OF THE LAND. 



The physical aspect of Boston when Mrs. Win- 
throp and her family approached it in 163 1 was quite 
different from its appearance now, for in the march 
of civilization the hills have been carried into the 
sea, the rough places have been made smooth, and 
many acres of superficial area have been added to the 
original measure. The area at that time was about 
783 acres, — less than that of the territory bought 
by the city of New York in 1861 for its Central 
Park. The present dry land in original Boston meas- 
ures 1,829 acres; and the total number of acres in 
the city limits is more than 23,000. Mr. Blaxton 
recommended the place on account of its good 
springs of water, and Winthrop established himself 
near the chief of these, which gave its name to 
Spring Lane, the water of which though long since 
disused is thought to have bubbled up anew when 
excavations were made in 1869 for the present Post- 
Office. 

The chief features, however, that Mrs. Winthrop 
noticed, as she entered the harbor, were the hills at 
the feet of which the straggling houses of the hamlet 
were nestled. At the north end of the promontory 

56 




57 



58 THE LA V OF THE LAND. 

stood Windmill (now Copp's) Hill ; to the south ap- 
peared Fort Hill, now completely cut away ; and 
between them rose the three-topped Sentry Hill, 
which changed its name to Beacon Hill, when in 
1635 the sentry who had had his post there gave 
place to the beacon which dominated the spot until 
about 1811. 

The promontory itself was divided into two por- 
tions by coves which made into its boundaries ; the 
first portion contained little more than Copp's Hill, 
and was separated from the rest by Mill Cove which 
put in at the north, and Town Cove on the south, 
the connection being made more complete by Mill 
Creek which very nearly follow^ed the line of Black- 
stone Street, as now laid out. It has been supposed 
that at high tide the waters of the harbor may have 
swept quite over the slight connecting link of land, 
making an island of Copp's Hill and the small terri- 
tory around its base. 

The southerly and main portion of the promontory 
contained the other hills, and it was connected with 
the mainland by a neck much narrower even than 
that which has just been mentioned. Over this neck 
the tide sometimes flowed, making the whole pro- 
montory an island. Thus there was but one road 
leading from the town to the neighboring villages. 
It was at first known simply as High or Main 
Street, and at a later period, when it had become of 
sufificient dignity to receive names, it was called Corn- 
hill, Marlborough, Newbury, and Orange Street, at 
different points. These names were attached as 
early as 1708, when the first list of streets was placed 



JOHN WINTHROFS HOME. 59 

on the town records. The name of Washington 
was applied to a portion of this thoroughfare in 1789, 
on the occasion of the visit of the first President, 
who entered the town by it then, as he had at the 
time of the evacuation of the place by the British in 
1776. Until 1872 it ended at Dock Square, but in 
that year, after a fire which opened the way for its 
extension, it was continued through that square, 
then re-named Adams Square, to Haymarket Square, 
a spot within the limits of the Mill Pond of the earli- 
est days. For more than a century — for seven-score 
years indeed, there were no brick sidewalks except 
on that part of Main Street near the Old South, 
called Cornhill ; and the streets were paved with 
pebbles. Foot-passengers took the middle of the 
streets, where they were the smoothest. King Street 
had no sidewalks before the Revolution, and the 
pavement extended from house to house. Of course 
there were no street lamps. 

What " entertainment " Mr. Winthrop had pro- 
vided for his family we do not know. His home was 
established at about this time on a lot nearly op- 
posite the present School Street, on the principal 
thoroughfare, where at a later period it changed its 
name from Cornhill to Marlborough. It was a build- 
ing of some capacity, but probably very rough and 
plain, and was surrounded by a garden, which ex- 
tended as far as the present Milk Street, the Old 
South church being built on it. From Mr. Win- 
throp's house the walk to the water's edge was not 
more than one third of the present distance, and he 
was surrounded by unoccupied territory on all sides. 



6o THE LA Y OF THE LAND. 

In fact the region beyond Milk Street was far out of 
town until a much later period, and was known as 
the " South End," for the chief portion of the town 
was found on the northern promontory, at the south 
side of Copp's Hill, and on the shore of " Town 
Cove," where it was under protection of a battery. 
The present North Street ran along the shore of this 
cove, and the Town Dock was at Dock Square, the 
site of Faneuil Hall being in early times covered 
with water. The appearance of the houses as they 
grew up on the line of the Town Cove was very 
agreeable from the water. 

To the west from Mr. Winthrop's dwelling, a 
short space, was an open field running down to the 
waters that flowed thence quite to the higher land 
in Roxbury. It was the "Sentry Field," or the 
Common, and was, largely through the efforts of 
Governor Winthrop, kept open for the common use 
of the inhabitants. On it cows were pastured until 
about sixty years ago. At the time of Margaret 
Winthrop's arrival it was probably covered with 
boulders that were convenient, as building pro- 
gressed, for use in the foundations. The whole 
promontory when Mr. Winthrop arrived was "very 
uneven, abounding in small hollows and swamps, 
covered with blueberries and other bushes," and 
doubtless its character had changed but little during 
the few months that elapsed before Margaret's ar- 
rival. There were, in fact, but a few cabins on the 
eastern side of the hill which sloped towards the bay. 

" It being a neck and bare of wood, they are not 
troubled with three great annoyances of wolves, 



THE MEETING-HOUSE. 6l 

rattlesnakes, and musquitoes," writes one observer 
the first year, though Johnson, in his " Wonder- 
Working Providence," declares that at the time of 
Winthrop's landing the " hideous thickets " were such 
that " wolves and bears nursed up their young from 
the eyes of all beholders." It is a matter of dispute 
whether there was actually no wood on the penin- 
sula, though there was but little, if any, and Win- 
throp wrote to his son in the winter of 1637, that 
Boston was '' almost ready to break up for want of 
wood," the season being so severe, and the water 
about them frozen over. Most if not all of the fire- 
wood and timber was brought to the settlers by 
water, and so was the general supply of hay, for 
even when the blueberry fields had been subdued 
they did not prove sufificient for the agricultural 
purposes of the growing town. 

We are left to imagine the slow process of making 
homes for the emigrants, and even the time when 
they provided the first meeting-house is not exactly 
known, though it was built on the street now called 
State, at first known as King Street, probably in 
1632. It was near the first Town-House, standing 
at the head of that street, and was a small building, 
with walls of mud and roof of thatch. Before it was 
erected, the congregation of Mr. Wilson held service 
in private houses, or, perhaps, " abroad under a tree," 
as we know they did before they left Charleton. 

Though the party that came with Winthrop was 
regaled by Endicott with venison pasty and beer, 
that was not the usual diet of the settlers, as we are 
expressly informed ; and though we know that 



62 THE LA Y OF THE LAND. 

various kinds of " strong water " were brought over 
in the Arbclla and other ships, it is related as among 
the privations of the New World that " it was not 
accounted a strange thing in those days to drink 
water," for " God did cause his people to trust in him, 
and to be contented with mean things, — nor to eat 
samp or hominy without butter or milk." Indeed, 
it would have been a strange thing to see a piece of 
roast beef, mutton, or veal, though it was not long 
before there was roast goat. The Indians sometimes 
brought them corn and bartered with the new- 
comers for clothing and knives, and Nathaniel Mor- 
ton says that once he had a " peck of corn or there- 
abouts for a little puppy-dog." " Frost-fish, mussels, 
and clams were a relief to many." The " learned 
schoolmaster and physician, and the renowned poet 
of New England," Benjamin Thompson, wrote of 
these times in his "New England's Crisis" that 

' ' The dainty Indian maize 
Was eat with clam-shells out of wooden trays. 
Under thatched huts, without the cry of rent, 
And the best sauce to every dish, content. 
Deep-skirted doublets, Puritanic capes, 

Which now [about 1665] would render men like upright apes, 
Was comelier wear, our wiser fathers thought. 
Than the last fashions from all Europe brought." 



VII. 

SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

Troubles arose in the colony at a very early 
period. It became necessary, in the opinion of the 
governor and assistants, to send some persons back 
to England, because they had come to Boston un- 
invited, and those who were thus punished naturally 
denounced the colonists, and gave evil reports of 
the land. There was one Philip Ratcliff, agent for 
Cradock, who thus reported that if the church-mem- 
bers were all like those with whom he had dealt, 
" he believed that the devil was the author of their 
church." For malicious and scandalous speeches he 
was sentenced to be whipped, to have his ears cut 
off, to be fined forty shillings and to be banished, 
the magistrates taking these barbarous measures not 
only because they were fashionable in England at 
the time, but because, as the old historian Hubbard 
says: "He that is mounted in the saddle had need 
keep the reins straight, unless he intends to be 
thrown down and trodden under foot. They that 
are the ministers of God for the good of mankind, 
should not bear the sword in vain." 

Banishment was a favorite method of punishing 
evil-doers in those days, and of protecting the infant 

63 



64 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

commonwealth. In 1629, Governor Endicott sent 
back John and Samuel Browne, who did not propose 
to secede from the English church, but set up at 
Salem a separate worship according to the Book of 
Common Prayer. The company in England saw the 
danger of this proceeding and gently warned Mr. 
Endicott that the act might be ill-construed in high 
quarters, and certainly it was ill-construed to the 
detriment of the Americans. Thomas Morton, 
represented to be a rollicking vagabond, of Mount 
Wollaston, was " set in the bilboes," and sent 
prisoner to England, his goods being seized and 
confiscated ; and Sir Christopher Gardiner, a mys- 
terious "knight of the Holy Sepulchre," who, as 
Hubbard says, very well became that title, " being 
himself a mere whited sepulchre," because he was 
suspected of being a " Romanist, an adulterer, and a 
spy," was sent home to be tried for imputed crimes. 
Ratcliff reported that the country was a " hideous 
wilderness, possessed with barbarous Indians ; very 
cold, sickly, rocky, barren, unfit for culture, and like 
to keep the people miserable." One Henry Linn 
was, among others, whipped and banished for 
writing letters home full of slander against the 
government and the order of the churches ; and Mr. 
Dudley said that many false and scandalous reports 
were spread abroad, it having been asserted that 
Massachusetts men were Brownists and Separatists. 
Worse than all, such " vile reports won some credit 
among those who once wished the colony well." 
Sir Richard Saltonstall has been mentioned as one 
of the principal supporters of the Boston colony. 



SALTONSTALL PROTESTS. 6$ 

He heard such rumors as these, and remonstrated 
against the intolerance of the colonists. Twenty 
years later, in 165 i, when the evil reports became 
more "loud-mouthed," he wrote to the ministers: 

" It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what sad 
things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecution 
in England, as that you fine, whip, and imprison men 
for their consciences. First, you compel such to come 
into your assemblies as you know will not join you in 
your worship ; and when they show dislike thereof, or 
witness against it, then you stir up your magistrates to 
punish them for, such, as you conceive, their public 
affronts. Truly, friends^ this your practice of compel- 
ling any in matters of worship, to that whereof they are 
not fully pursuaded, is to make them sin ; for so the 
Apostle (Romans xiv., 23) tells us ; and many are made 
hypocrites thereby." 

No wonder that we read that only ninety came 
over in the twelvemonth after the great emigration, 
and but two hundred and fifty the year following. 

Among the notable arrivals from England was 
that of Roger Williams, who came by the ship Lion, 
Februarys, 163 1, with those provisions which caused 
the public thanksgiving that was held on the twenty- 
second of that month. Mr. Williams was a Welsh- 
man, about eleven years younger than John Win- 
throp. He had been carefully educated after the 
fashion of the age, and had become a clergyman of 
the English church, in which he associated with 
John Cotton and other good men who afterwards 
sought our shores, but was then an enthusiastic 
Puritan. There are indications that he was not 



66 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

only pious and learned, but also that Mr. Cotton 
was correct, when he said that Williams looked upon 
himself as one who had " received a clearer illumina- 
tion of and apprehension of the state of Christ's 
kingdom, and of the purity of church communion, 
than all Christendom besides." At any rate, he 
felt that the Boston Puritans were not sufficiently 
purified from the corruptions, as he thought them, of 
the English church, and he determined to bestir 
himself to bring about a reformation in New Eng- 
land. He proved himself singularly eccentric and 
"heady," and Governor Bradford of Plymouth, 
though he thought him godly and zealous, consid- 
ered him also " very unsettled in judgment." On 
the soil of England Williams was the friend and 
companion of Milton and Hampden, of Vane and 
Cromwell ; in the New World he was a guest of 
the savages in their " filthy, smoky holes," and a 
sharer of the scanty and miscellaneous diet that they 
were able to provide him in the forest haunts.* 

The deputy-governor, Thomas Dudley, was an 
older man than Winthrop, and of quite a different 
character in some respects. He was " of approved 
wisdom and godliness," to use the language of the 
time, but he had been in the English army, and was, 
perhaps from his training there, of a somewhat stern 
and rigid disposition. Probably it irritated him to 
be second in office to a man so much his junior, and 
it did not lessen this feeling to know that the gov- 
ernor felt that in the infancy of the state justice 

* " The Puritan Age and Rule," chapter viii., and the " Life of 
Roger Williams," by Professor William Gauimell, p. 54. 



WINTHROP AND DUDLEY AT ODDS. 6/ 

ought to be administered with more lenity than he 
approved. These constitutional differences made it 
easy for Dudley to fall out with Winthrop on small 
occasion. Accordingly, when Winthrop decided 
that he would not make New Town the capital, as 
he did in 163 1, after Dudley had built a dwelling 
there, and when Winthrop himself had erected the 
frame for his own, Dudley complained a good deal. 
In the spring Mr. Dudley went away abruptly from 
a meeting of the court, declaring that he would no 
longer serve as deputy-governor ; and though his 
resignation was not allowed, there was much discus- 
sion about the relations of the two men. 

Mr. Winthrop complained that Mr. Dudley made 
his dwelling too costly for a building in a new plan- 
tation, because he ornamented it and put wainscot- 
ing in it. The quarrel that grew up seems small at 
this distance of time ; but apparently Dudley had 
some cause to complain that Winthrop removed the 
frame of his house from New Town to Boston, and 
Winthrop does not seem warranted in finding fault 
with Dudley's house as too elaborate, for the 
" wainscoting " appears to have been nothing more 
than " clapboards nailed to the wall in form of wain- 
scot," for purposes of warmth. However, the un- 
pleasantness was not removed for some years, and 
kept breaking out at intervals. Doubtless it was an 
important matter to the young community, and all 
were happy when in 1638, after previous deceptive 
reconciliations, the governor and deputy met at 
Concord, where they were laying out farms, and 
were reconciled. They named two stones there the 



68 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

Two Brothers, in memory of the reconcihation, and 
to remind themselves also that they were connected 
by the marriage of their children, Mary Winthrop 
and the Reverend Samuel Dudley. 

There was a good spirit shown at one time in the 
controversy, when Dudley sent a bitter letter to 
Winthrop and Winthrop returned it, saying that he 
was not willing to keep by him a letter that might 
tend to make him angry. He also offered Mr. 
Dudley a present of a fat hog, as a testimony of 
good-will. Upon this Mr. Dudley said to the gov- 
ernor, " Your overcoming yourself hath overcome 
me." The angry and threatening quarrel, though it 
lasted years, ended happily. It was not settled, how- 
ever, until it had been considered by the ministers, 
who were general advisers in those days. They dif- 
fered from Mr. Winthrop, and told him that strict 
discipline in criminal offences and martial affairs was 
more needful in a new community than in an old 
one ; and he replied that " he was convinced that he 
had failed in overmuch lenity and remissness, and 
would endeavor (with God's assistance) to take a 
more strict course " thereafter. 

The people at this time were very busy in all the 
occupations that one would expect the settlers of a 
new town to be engaged in. They did not generally 
feel acquainted enough with the art of government to 
take much part in its details, and the governor and 
his assistants were permitted for some time to attend 
almost alone to such matters. A great many small 
police regulations were found necessary, and the 
assistants were busy with petty offences. Josias 



POLICE REGULATIONS. 69 

Plastowe was, for instance, fined five pounds and 
ordered to make twofold restitution for stealing 
corn from some Indians, and thenceforth he was to 
be called Josias, and not Mr. Plastowe as formerly. 
Captain Stone, for calling a justice "just-ass" was 
fined one hundred pounds. Corn was ordered to be 
accepted instead of gold and silver, unless money or 
beaver skins were expressly named in bargains ; a 
day was appointed for the monthly " training " of 
the militia ; certain offenders were fined for " abus- 
ing themselves disorderly with drinking too much 
strong drink " ; Captain Lovell was admonished to 
take heed of "light carriage"; the price of boards 
was fixed ; Henry Lyon was whipped and banished 
" for writing against the government and the execu- 
tion of justice " ; a ferry was established between 
Winnesimmet (Chelsea) and Charlestown ; pastor 
Phillips of Watertown was disciplined for speaking 
of the Church of Rome as a true church ; the wages 
of servants was settled ; no person was allowed to 
leave the jurisdiction by sea or land, or to buy pro- 
visions from any vessel without permission from a 
magistrate; the sachem Chickatabot was fined a 
beaver skin for shooting a swine of Sir Richard 
Saltonstall's * ; the time for burning over ground 
for corn was fixed ; there were assessments for mak- 
ing the creek at the New Town " twelve feet broad 
and seven feet deep," and for fortifying the same 
place ; and a fort was built on what has since been 

* On the contrary. Sir Richard was directed at another time to 
give Sagamore John a hogshead of corn for the hurt his cattle had 
done to the Indian's corn. 



70 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

called Fort Hill in Boston. In 1632 a windmill that 
had done service at New Town, but would not grind 
except when the wind was in the west, was taken 
down and set up on Copp's Hill. Boston was for- 
mally declared to be the fittest place for public 
meetings, and the court ordered that a House of 
Correction and a house for the beadle should be 
erected speedily. The beadle was charged with the 
correction of petty offenders. 

Laud had now become archbishop of England, and 
his furious dealings with the Puritans led to new emi- 
gration of men of means and of learned divines, in 
1633. The arrival of Mr. John Cotton, for more 
than a score of years minister of St. Botolph's Old 
Boston, who had journeyed to Southampton to say 
farewell to Winthrop in 1630, was an event of note. 
His was the most stately parish church in England. 
The beautiful tower rises to the height of two hun- 
dred and eighty feet. Though the church contains 
no galleries, it is estimated to accommodate five 
thousand persons. With Mr. Cotton's arrival is 
connected an incident showing that however great 
the influence of the clergy may have been at the 
time, and undoubtedly was, it did not overawe the 
careful Puritans enough to lead them to give up 
any political power that they thought was by right 
theirs. Mr. Cotton had renounced Episcopacy, but 
he was not so advanced as the colonists had be- 
come in the short time that had passed since they 
had been under the king's immediate rule. He came 
to Boston with a reputation which his great learning 
and ability increased. Hutchinson says of him that 



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72 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

he is supposed to have been more instrumental in 
the settlement of the civil and as well as the eccle- 
siastical polity of New England than any other per- 
son.* He was ordained pastor of the First Church 
in October with peculiar ceremonies, which have 
been essentially followed in the Congregational body 
since. The next day, in like manner, Mr. Hooker 
was formally placed at the head of the church at 
New Town. 

When Mr. Winthrop's term of ofKice came to a 
close in May, 1633, Mr. Cotton preached an election 
sermon, in which he urged that a magistrate ought 
not to be turned into the condition of a private man 
without just cause ; whereupon the independent vot- 
ers proceeded to relegate Mr. Winthrop to private 
life, and to place Thomas Dudley in the ofifice of 
governor, coolly referring Mr. Cotton's arguments to 
" further consideration." Winthrop had held the 
chief ofifice since his election in England before the 
emigration, had performed its heavy duties without 
remuneration, and had, indeed, paid many expenses 
from his private purse that might properly have been 
charged to the public treasury ; but latterly he had 
lost some favor, and now at four elections a change 
was made with regularity. The last change, how- 
ever, was to Mr. Winthrop again. Mr. Cotton did 
not reflect that the voters were the ones to settle the 
question as to whether there was just cause for not 
re-electing an of^cer. Though Winthrop -was out of 
office, he did not cease exerting an influence upon 
the town. He was at the head of a committee 

* " History of New England," vol. i., p. 32. 



PERSONS OF QUALITY. 73 

appointed to dispose of all the common lands of 
the town, in December, 1634, and he induced the 
people to reserve forty or fifty acres for the perpetual 
use of the public. It seems that but for Mr. Win- 
throp's determined stand, in the face of much oppo- 
sition, the region which is the beauty and the pride 
of the city would now be covered with buildings. 

The promoters of the Boston emigration seem to 
have had grand visions of the creation of " a trans- 
atlantic English empire," which should include all 
that was best in the land that they left behind ; per- 
haps they saw a New Atlantis rising on our shores, 
such as Bacon and others before him had imagined. 
So, at least, Burke seems to have thought that they 
felt.* Now there came from London a direct propo- 
sition on the part of some " persons of great quality 
and estate, and of special note for piety," for the 
establishment of a social system comprising two 
ranks of men, the one called " princes, or nobles, or 
elders," and the other " the people." The colonists 
willingly acknowledged two distinct orders, both 
" from the light of nature and Scripture," and that 
they should be hereditary, — members of the first 
having the right to attend parliament or public as- 
semblies personally, and members of the second 
having the right of meeting and voting by deputies 
whom they should choose. 

Nothing came of this proposal except discussion, 
which probably settled the minds of many and gave 
more full knowledge to the people as to what they 
might safely and prope/ly try to do in the new land. 

* Palfrey, " History of New England," vol. i., p. 30S. 



74 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

One person of " quality " came over, " Harry Vane," 
afterwards Sir Henry Vane, and it is said that Pym, 
Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell would have followed 
but for " an express order of the king " forbidding 
them. These facts show that the charter was 
thought to give the colonists power to establish 
any sort of government that they pleased, if it 
was not antagonistic to that of England. We shall 
see that the tendency was toward making the gov- 
ernment more popular rather than towards any sort 
of hereditary nobility, in spite of the tempting 
propositions of the persons of quality. 

Certain new-comers, Williams, Vane, Hugh Pe- 
ter,* and Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, caused great dis- 
turbance for several years, into the details of which 
we cannot go ; but a few facts concerning them are 
necessary to enable us to understand the story. Mr. 
Williams refused to unite with the church at Boston 
on his arrival, because it would not profess repent- 
ance for having had communion with the English 
church, and from that time he proved the correct- 
ness of the judgment of those who thought him 
" eccentric." He went to Salem, where he was 
asked to become teacher of the church. He re- 
mained a while, and then went to Plymouth, becom- 
ing associate with that Mr. Ralph Smith of whom 
the Boston colonists had been afraid that he was 
a Separatist. Soon Elder Brewster, of Plymouth, 
was anxious to be rid of Williams, on account of 
the restless disputes which he excited, and was 

* This person always spelled his imme thus, though a final s is 
often added by others. 




THE FROG POND OX THE COMMON 
AS IT NOW APPEARS. 



75 



^6 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

happy when the Salem people called him to them 
again. 

Back at Salem, Williams began to stir up discus- 
sion upon various subjects. Cotton Mather said, 
rather more wittily than truly (using the proverbial 
expression), that Williams had " a windmill in his 
head." He gave out that women ought to wear 
veils when they went abroad, and especially when 
they appeared in public assemblies ; upon which 
Mr. Cotton spent a Sunday at Salem and preached 
a sermon to the women, which " let in so much light 
into their understandings that they who before 
thought it a shame to be seen in public without a 
veil were ashamed ever after to be covered with 
them." Williams was so much of a zealot for re- 
form that he thought that the cross should be taken 
from the flag because " it was a relic of anti-Chris- 
tian superstition," and Governor Endicott cut it out 
accordingly. " What that good man would have 
done with the cross upon his coin (if he had any left) 
that bore the sign of superstition," says Hubbard, 
slyly, " is uncertain." Williams maintained that it 
was unlawful for an unregenerate man to pray or to 
take an oath, especially the oath of fidelity to the 
government, and that a godly man ought not to 
have any communion with such as were considered 
unregenerate, and therefore he refused to take the 
oath of fidelity, and taught others to refuse. He 
urged that the magistrates ought not to have to do 
with matters relating to a man's duty to God, but 
only with his duties to man, and that "there should 
be a general and unlimited toleration of all religions, 



THE CASE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. // 

and for any man to be punished for any matters of 
his conscience was persecution.* 

Probably the worst feature in the case of Williams 
was what Cotton calls " his violent and tumultuous 
carriage against the patent." He declared that 
King James told a " solemn public lie " in that docu- 
ment, and that it gave the colonists no right to the 
territory it described, but that the natives were still 
the true owners of it. This doctrine, if not "violent 
and tumultuous " itself, tended to promote violent 
and tumultuous carriage, for it would have upturned 
all civil order in the colony, would have rendered 
invalid all titles to land, and would have relegated 
the community to a state of anarchy. No wonder 
the magistrates were alarmed to have a man not 
only carefully writing such things down in a book 
(which, though unpublished, was probably known to 
many, as other unpublished books were at that time, 
when printing was not yet introduced into the 
colony), but also, as Winthrop expressly declares, 
" publicly teaching against the king's patent," and 
the great sin of the colonists in claiming rights 
under it. The magistrates spared no pains in warn- 
ing Mr. Williams and in endeavoring to lead him 
to give up his offensive practices ; but when their 
efforts failed, they treated him as they had other 
offenders, and ordered him to " depart out of the 
jurisdiction within six weeks now ensuing." The 
remainder of the life of this remarkable man belongs 
to the history of another community. 

Pages of the history of this period are covered 

* Hutchinson, " General History of New England," p. 206. 



78 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

with details of the " Antinomian controversy," so 
called — a discussion which began in the First 
Church, and apparently should have been confined 
to it. It was more threatening than the trouble 
with Williams, and permeated the whole Puritan 
fabric, and, if peace had not been brought about, 
would have involved the whole town, and perhaps 
the colony, in dissension and ruin. " Hitherto the 
beauty of the Lord had been upon the primitive 
plantations of New England," wrote Mr. Hubbard; 
" but the wicked one stirred up several of his instru- 
ments, as the Pequod Indians and the preachers 
of antinomianism, who infested the plantation." 

The fears of the men of Boston were not imagin- 
ary. They had read the story of the split in the 
Reformed Church of Miinster in 1534, and remem- 
bered the horrible excesses that it led to — the de- 
capitation of citizens by the score by the fanatic 
draper Knipperdolling, the wild and degrading vaga- 
ries of " King " John, the head of the Anabaptists; 
and the hideous circumstances of the subsequent 
siege of the city.* 

Some had been heard to say, so Mr. Hubbard 
reports, " that they believed the church of Boston 
to be the most glorious church in the world," 
mainly, doubtless, on account of the presence of 
"that burning and shining light," Mr. John Cotton. 
Now it was about to go under a cloud, all by reason 

* The story of these troubles was given in all its repulsive details 
in a pamphlet entitled " The Dippers Dipt ; or the Anabaptists 
ducked and plunged over head and ears," written by Daniel Featley, 
who died in 1644. See also " The Story of Germany," "chapter 
xxxvi. 



MFs. Hutchinson's case. 79 

of the insinuating efforts of one Mrs, Anne Hutchin- 
son, a gentlewoman " of a nimble wit, voluble tongue, 
eminent knowledge in the Scriptures, and notable 
helpfulness to her own sex, to which especially she 
addressed herself." Antinomianism was a doctrine 
much feared by the ministers of Boston, and by all 
who had any interest in the Puritan church. The 
sect to which it was attributed originated just before 
the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and 
held that under the gospel dispensation the moral 
law is of no use or obligation. Another sect, known 
as the Family of Love, or Familists, arose about 
sixty years later, receiving its name from the affec- 
tion that its members professed to bear to all people, 
however wicked. The errors of these sects were 
attributed to both Mrs. Hutchinson and her brother, 
the Reverend John Wheelwright, and even the 
"loving and gentle" Mr, Cotton found that many 
of them were attributed also to him, though all 
three denied that they were Antinomians. The 
colony was thoroughly stirred up by these opinions ; 
Mrs. Hutchinson gathered a company of some sixty 
women in private houses, and expounded to them 
her views ; Mr. Winthrop says that most members 
of the church were carried away by the errors, and 
that the five or six who held to the old views were 
desired to withdraw. A synod was called to meet at 
New Town in 1637, composed of the elders of the 
churches throughout the country, to consider the 
matter. 

The synod, which had been called, not by the min- 
isters only, but also with consent of the magistrates. 



8o SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

met at New Town in November, in the church of 
the Reverend Mr. Thomas Shepard, and for three 
weeks patiently listened to tedious discussions, 
eighty-two opinions being finally condemned with 
apparent unanimity. A basis was thus presented 
for further proceedings. Mrs. Hutchinson was for- 
mally tried by the court, and sentenced to banish- 
ment. The church took up the case again after- 
wards, and pronounced sentence of excommunica- 
tion. Thus banned, both Mrs. Hutchinson and her 
brother left Boston, the one going to found Exeter, 
New Hampshire, and the other taking her way to 
Rhode Island. She afterwards met a tragic death 
at the hands of the Indians somewhere near the 
present Astoria, whither she finally went. To pre- 
vent tumults, a good number of citizens of Boston 
were now required to give up their arms, and a law 
was passed threatening fine anr imprisonment or 
banishment, upon all who should defame any court 
or any sentence passed by one. Many persons 
removed from the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts 
magistrates, going to Rhode Island and elsewhere; 
some were banished and others disfranchised. It 
was a long time before the wounds then made were 
healed. Two years later, Mr. Winthrop, who had 
opposed Mrs. Hutchinson's views when they were 
popular, was received into even greater esteem than 
before; and in 1644, the decree of banishment that 
had been made against Mr. Wheelwright was with- 
drawn. 

There were two men of note exceedingly prominent 
in Boston affairs at this time, to whose strange and 



THE CASE OF HUGH PETER. 8 1 

tragic careers a few words must be given. Harry 
Vane and Hugh Peter, of wliom we have spoken, 
arrived there in 1635, and had scarcely been on the 
shores of the New World three months before they 
undertook to "revise the administration of the gov- 
ernment " ; a fact which shows that the pleasantries 
about the too prompt interference by new-comers in 
American affairs, which are seen nowadays in our 
journals, might have found appropriate place in 
correspondence before the daily newspaper was 
thought of. Mr. Vane rushed through his brief 
course in Boston in a short time. His high birth, and 
the fact that he sympathized with the colonists against 
the wishes of his father, gave him prominence, and 
he was incontinently chosen governor at the first 
election after his arrival. He was defeated by Win- 
throp the following year, and on the third of August, 
just before the synod met at New Town, he left Bos- 
ton forever.* 

Mr. Peter had suffered for his opinions under 
Laud,f and had been for six years a pastor at Rot- 

* He had proved, to use the language of Governor Hutchinson, 
" young and inexperienced, but obstinate and self-sufficient," and 
gave offence to the greater part of the people. It was thought at 
the time that he had left behind him dissensions that would trouble 
the colony for ages. 

f "New England has perhaps never quite appreciated its great 
obligations to Archbishop Laud. It was his overmastering hate of 
non-conformity, it was the vigilance and vigor and consecrated 
cruelty with which he scoured his own diocese and afterwards all 
England, and hunted down and hunted out all the ministers who 
were committing the unpardonable sin of dissent, that conferred 
upon the principal colonies of New England their ablest and noblest 
men." — "A History of American Literature," by Professor Moses 
Coit Tyler, vol. i. , p. 204. 



82 SUNDRY TROUBLES. 

terdam, whither he went for safety. He took the 
place of Williams in the church at Salem, and engaged 
with energy both in religious and business affairs, 
going from place to place inciting men to public 
spirit, raising money to develop certain kinds of 
industries, working with John Winthrop, junior, in 
the matters of the Connecticut colony, and at one 
time rebuking Vane for his " peremptory con- 
clusions," which, he said, he perceived the young 
governor to be very apt unto. In 1641 he went to 
England as agent for the colony, remaining there. 
He became chaplain to Cromwell, and walked by 
the side of his secretary, John Milton, at his funeral. 
At the Restoration he was executed. 



VIII. 



THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE POPULAR. 



The Company of the Massachusetts Bay was at 
first a pure democracy ; every member was author- 
ized to vote for the governor and assistants. It was 
not at all the intention of the promoters of the colony, 
however, to establish a democracy on the shores of 
America. John Cotton said in express terms that 
he did not conceive that God ever ordained democ- 
racy to be a fit government, either for church or 
commonwealth. The form of civil polity in the new 
colony was determined by the circumstances as they 
arose ; and the fact that loyalty to the king was not 
so strong when a broad ocean rolled between him 
and his subjects, and when weeks were occupied in 
conveying orders from him to them, as it was when 
the sovereign was near to them, and could cause his 
commands to be quickly conveyed to them, had a 
considerable effect in making a gradual change. 

The supreme authority in Boston was at first in 
the hands of the governor and assistants, and they 
were chosen by all the freemen ; but on the occasion 
of the first general court, which was held October 
19, 1630, it was determined that the freemen should 
choose the assistants, and they should, from their 

83 



84 THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE POPULAR, 

own number, elect the governor and deputy-governor. 
More than a hundred men were admitted to the 
privileges of freemen at that time, and among them 
were some who did not belong to any of the churches. 
This fact shortly became the cause of serious consid- 
eration, for, the purpose of the colonists being to 
build up a biblical commonwealth, it was found 
necessary to establish some basis of character which 
would ensure the continuance of its desired traits. 
It was of paramount importance, as the voters ex- 
pressed it. May i8, 163 1, to make sure that the body 
of the commons should be " honest and good men," 
and accordingly the only steps known to them to 
make this sure were taken. It was voted unani- 
mously that no man should be admitted to the free- 
dom of the body politic who was not a member of 
one of the churches within the limits of the colony. 
By this vote all members of the Church of England 
were excluded, though naturally Mr. Blaxton, Mr. 
Maverick, and others, who had not renounced 
connection with it, were permitted to retain the 
privileges that had previously been voted to them. 
It was the first time in history when such terms for 
the franchise had been laid down in any civil state.* 
A kind of aristocracy hitherto unknown was estab- 
lished, based not upon birth, nor learning, nor wealth, 
but upon personal character, so far as the real worth 
of a man could be determined by human tests. f 

The methods of election were modified from time 
to time, and it was not very long, indeed, before the 

* Ellis, " The Puritan Age and Rule," p. 2or. 

f Palfrey, " History of New England," vol. i., p. 345. 



THE PEOPLE UNEASY. 83 

general court ordered that the right to choose the 
governor should be taken from the assistants and 
conferred upon the whole body of the commons. It 
was also agreed that, instead of calling all the free- 
men at the general court to settle taxes and assess- 
ments, two deputies should be chosen from each 
plantation to confer with the governor and assistants 
in regard to such matters. Thus there appears to 
have been a steadily growing desire on the part of 
the freemen to enlarge their share in the government, 
which, by every change that was made, became more 
popular in its character. Speaking of this period. 
Governor Hutchinson says that "the people began 
to grow uneasy," and no longer wished to allow the 
whole management of public affairs to rest in the 
hands of the governor and assistants, though appar- 
ently their experience had at first inclined them to 
assume as little responsibility as possible. In May, 
1634, the freemen, assembled as the fifth great and 
general court, voted that the deputies, when they 
met, should have all the powers they themselves en- 
joyed, except as to the choice of magistrates, which 
they retained. It was at this time prescribed that 
the freemen should swear allegiance to the govern- 
ment in the use of the following words : 

" I, A. B., being by God's providence an inhabitant 
and freeman within the jurisdiction of this common- 
wealth, do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to 
the government thereof, and therefore do here swear, by 
the great and dreadful name of the Everliving God, that 
I will be true and faithful to the same, and will accord- 
ingly yield assistance and support thereunto, with my 



86 THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE POPULAR. 

person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and will also 
truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties 
and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the whole- 
some laws and orders made and established by the same ; 
and further, that I will not plot nor practise any evil 
against it, nor consent to any that shall do so, but will 
timely discover and reveal to lawful authority now here 
established for the speedy preventing thereof. More- 
over, I do solemnly bind myself in the sight of God, that, 
when I shall be called to give my vote touching any 
such matter of this state, wherein freemen are to deal, I 
will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in mine 
own conscience may best conduce and tend to the public 
weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of 
any man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ." 

There were other reasons for this establishment of 
a representative body. The freemen had much in- 
creased in number, and the plantations had become 
more widely scattered ; so that it was not only a 
matter of some difficulty to get the men of the 
different settlements together in Boston often, but 
it was really dangerous for them all to leave their 
homes at the same time, on account of their private 
business, but more particularly because the Indians 
were likely to take advantage of such occasions to 
make raids upon the defenceless wives and children. 
Thus it was that the first legislative body arose in 
Boston. It was the Second in point of time in 
America, having been anticipated by the General 
Assembly of Virginia, convened in 1619, which con- 
sisted of the governor and council and two burgesses 
from each plantation. 



LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. 87 

There were now about three hundred and fifty 
freemen in the colony, the majority of whom Hved 
in Boston, which remained not only the chief settle- 
ment in the Massachusetts colony, but also the 
largest place in all the colonies until about the time 
of the revolutionary war. This numerical importance 
of Boston in comparison with the other places in 
America for so long a period must be carefully re- 
membered, for it accounts for many acts on both 
sides of the ocean that cannot otherwise be under- 
stood. In comparison with the body of freemen in 
the colony at this time, the number of magistrates 
was very small indeed, for, though the charter per- 
mitted the election of twenty assistants, only about 
one half as many had actually been chosen each 
year, in order that there might be place for those 
"men of rank" who were expected to come over. 
There were now some thirteen ministers, who had 
great influence in secular matters, though not per- 
mitted to hold of^ce. It was natural that their 
advice should be highly prized in the public councils, 
for they were usually the most fully educated per- 
sons in the community ; but it is evident that in 
some cases their views had altogether more weight 
than was best for the people. 

Thus the settlers built up an original form of 
government under their charter, and they repeatedly 
proved by their acts that they were not at all averse 
to measures that looked towards independence of 
the king of England. This is shown in the form of 
the Freeman's Oath, just quoted, for not a word was 
said in that about loyalty to the king, from under 



88 THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE POPULAR. 

whose authority they professed never to have be- 
taken themselves. The home government did not 
fail to notice these assumptions of independent 
authority ; and trouble came from them, aggravated 
as they were by the representations of those dis- 
affected persons who were from time to time sent 
home as unfit to dwell among the colonists. In 
1635 the Council for New England surrendered its 
charter to the crown, and complained that it was 
unable to control its own colonists, who had " framed 
unto themselves both new laws and new conceipts," 
in order that they might make themselves " abso- 
lutely masters of the country and unconscionable in 
their new laws." " Such," writes the historian Gar- 
diner, "was the view of the proceedings of the 
Massachusetts settlers which prevailed in the Eng- 
lish court." 

An amusing circumstance gave rise to another 
change in the management of public affairs, and 
Winthrop, in his diary, gives many pages to an 
account of it, very properly calling it a "great 
business upon a very small occasion." It happened 
that in the year 1636 there was a stray sow in 
Boston. It was against the rules of the town for 
vagrant sows to go about the streets, and accord- 
ingly this one was taken to Captain Robert Keayne, 
at the time charged with the care of estrays, 
and now remembered from the more significant 
fact that he was the first leader of that famous 
body of military men called the Ancient and Hon- 
orable Artillery Company. Captain Robert gave 
as wide notice as he could, through the town- 



GOODY SHERMAN'S SOW. 89 

crier and otherwise, that the owner might come and 
take his property ; but no claimant appeared, and 
more than a year passed, he the meantime feeding 
the estray among his own swine. At the proper 
time, Captain Robert guilelessly proceeded, as usual, 
to slaughter one of his swine ; and not long after, 
good-wife Sherman, consort of a worthless fellow, 
who was not at the moment in the colony, called 
upon Captain Keayne to see if the sow that he had 
taken care of so long were not one that she had lost 
months previously. Her pet had "a black spott vn- 
der the eye of the bignesse of a shilling & a ragged 
eare," which traits the specimen in the captain's pen 
had not ; and it occurred to the good-wife that it 
was her animal which had been slaughtered ! She 
therefore brought the matter before the " elders of 
the church " of Boston, who patiently heard her 
plaint, and then exonerated the captain, whereupon 
she took the case before a jury, and, in spite of the 
fact that the captain was unpopular " for the hard- 
ness of his dealings," he was again victorious. 
Whereupon he turned upon his accuser with a suit 
for defamation of character, and recovered fifty 
pounds damages. The never-to-be-satisfied good- 
wife then took tlie matter to the great and general 
court, and seven weary days were occupied by that 
honorable body in hearing testimony about the spots 
under the eye, and the raggedness of the ear, after 
which it appeared, upon a vote, that the majority of 
the rriagistrates supported the captain, while the ma- 
jority of the deputies were so prejudiced against the 
doughty man of war that they inclined to be on the 



90 THE GO VERNMEN T BE COME S MORE P OP ULA R. 

woman's side. Seven of the deputies, however, 
decHned to commit themselves either way, and the 
result was a decision that the case was " not deter- 
mined," because the votes of five magistrates and 
sixteen deputies were required to settle the question, 
and these neither party had. 

Much contention and earnestness of argument fol- 
lowed, and the members of the court, but especially 
the magistrates, were so irreverently spoken of that 
Winthrop and the others found it necessary to issue 
a true declaration of the case. Even this did not 
satisfy all ; and Winthrop was obliged to write fur- 
ther that " the sow business not being digested in 
the country," it had started another question, which 
was the right of the magistrates to a veto in the 
general court. Another long discussion followed ; 
much was written on both sides, and in March, 1644, 
it was voted that the two branches of government 
should sit separately, and that each should have the 
right of veto upon the action of the other ; that is, 
that an act, having been passed by the deputies, 
should not be effective unless it also passed the magis- 
trates. Thus was established a principle which has 
obtained in all subsequent governments formed in 
America, and all our legislative bodies are composed 
of two houses voting separately. 

There are two other movements connected with the 
political organization of the colony of the Massachu- 
setts Bay, which exerted great influence over Amer- 
ican affairs ever afterwards. At the time that the 
town of Bo5^ton was stirred to its foundation by the pre- 
revolutionary struggle. Governor Hutchinson wrote : 



THE POWER OF BOSTON AS A TOWN. 9 1 

" By an unfortunate mistake, soon after the charter, a 
law was passed which made every town in the province 
a corporation perfectly democratic, every matter being 
determined by the major vote of the inhabitants ; and, 
although the intent of the law was to confine their pro- 
ceedings to the immediate concerns of the town, yet for 
many years past the town of Boston has been used to 
interest itself in every affair of moment which concerned 
the province in general." * 

The name " town " occurs in the second meeting 
of the assistants, September 7, 1630, when Boston, 
Charleton, and Watertown were named : and it is 
said that the first " town-meeting " was held in Dor- 
chester the following year, for the purpose of m.ak- 
ing orders for the control of the affairs of that par- 
ticular community. f Very soon thereafter it became 
customary to choose annually certain members of 
the plantation into whose hands the execution of 
the orders of the meeting should be entrusted for 
the year ; these were first called " selectmen," at 
Charleton, in 1635, and the title was afterwards 
adopted throughout New England. 

The gatherings of freemen in town-meeting at the 
" beating of the drum," or otherwise, became an 
important item in the education of the New E;ig- 
landers in the art of self-government, and Governor 
Hutchinson was right, from the point of view of a 
royalist, in thinking it " an unfortunate mistake " 

* March 7, 1772, in a letter to General Gage. 

f To give the towns the necessary compactness, it was ordered 
that houses should not be erected at a greater distance than a half- 
mile from the meeting-house in new plantations. 



92 THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE POPULAR. 

that established such hotbeds of patriotism. In 
those meetings, which are purely democratic, men 
are taught to stand up for their opinions, to think 
upon their feet, and to exercise many of the talents 
that are vitally necessary for the legislator on a 
broader platform. It is because of these town-meet- 
ings that New England, the colony of the Massachu- 
setts Bay, and especially the town of Boston, obtained 
and kept such great influence in the colonies during 
all the earlier period of American history. They 
are themselves a heritage from our Anglo-Saxon 
ancestors of a remote period. 

The next fundamental action on the part of the 
New England colonists, in which, as interesting her- 
self in every thing that was connected with the 
public weal, Boston took her share, relates to the 
treatment of the Indians. These creatures, which the 
colonists seemed truly to have desired to bring to the 
Christian faith, were looked upon as the veriest ruins 
of mankind, showing, in the words of Cotton Mather, 
how hard a master the Devil is to his most devoted 
vassals. Connecticut was, at the time of the settle- 
ment of Boston, more thickly occupied than any 
other portion of New England by the savages, and 
they had, in 1633, murdered one John Stone, who 
had been banished from Boston for immoralities. 
They afterwards murdered others. There was 
great uneasiness in Boston, and it was thought 
necessary to take positive steps for the protection 
of the two hundred and fifty Englishmen in Con- 
necticut, many of whom had gone from Boston and 
the vicinity. 



THE PEQUODS EXTERMINATED. 93 

A frightful war against the Indians was entered 
upon, in which Governor Endicott, Captain John 
Underhill, and Captain John Mason led the forcesof 
the colonists. The campaign was short and terribly 
earnest. The Pequods were exterminated, those that 
were not killed being sold into slavery in New 
England and the West Indies ; no mercy was 
given them, for the soldiers verily believed them- 
selves agents of the God whom they worshipped 
in punishing the savages as enemies of the saints. 
And the land had rest from the Indians forty 
years.* 

The Indians were not the only enemies against 
whom the colonists had to protect themselves. The 
attempt was made to divide the councils of the sav- 
ages by making friends with one tribe, in the hope of 
thus being protected against the others ; but this 
involved the colonists in many difficulties, and it was 
a policy not possible in the case of the French and 
Dutch colonists on the east and on the west, who 
were much feared. The colonists nearest the settle- 
ments of the Dutch felt that they were in an unpro- 
tected condition, and in 1637 some magistrates and 
ministers from Connecticut being in Boston in at- 
tendance upon a synod, called to take action in 
regard to the spread of the dreaded Antinomianism, 
a meeting was held to agree if possible upon a con- 
federation for the purpose of mutual protection ; 

* For the details of this bloody struggle the reader who is curious 
on the subject is referred to the " Life of John Mason," by Dr. 
Geo. E. Ellis; to Palfrey's "New England," vol. i. ; and to 
Winsor's " Memorial History of Boston," vol. i., p. 253. 



94 THE GO I 'ERNMEN T BECOMES MORE POP ULA R. 

but it failed to settle any principles of union. 
Massachusetts was ready for union, but Connecticut 
did not approve of the plan which was proposed. 
The following year the governor of Connecticut and 
the Reverend Mr. Hooker, the most prominent min- 
ister there, were in Boston for a month upon the 
same business ; but no action was taken then. In 
the autumn of 1642 Connecticut made new overtures, 
and a consultation between the magistrates of Bos- 
ton and the deputies from Boston and the neighbor- 
ing towns, and commissioners from Plymouth, 
Connecticut, and New Haven was planned, but 
nothing was done until spring. Then the general 
court appointed a committee for the same purpose, 
and articles of confederation were agreed upon. 
The document which was drawn up recited the 
objects of the league to be, to preserve and propa- 
gate the truth and liberties of the gospel, and to 
ensure the mutual safety and welfare of the colonies. 
A preamble gave the reasons for the union. It 
said that all the colonists came from England for the 
same purpose ; that they were then scattered upon 
the sea-coasts and rivers farther than had been in- 
tended ; that they were encompassed by people of 
several nations and of strange languages ; that the 
natives had committed " sundry insolences and out- 
rages upon several plantations," and were at that 
time combined against the English ; that there were 
distractions in England which made it difficult to get 
advice or protection from that quarter, and that for 
these reasons the colonies formed themselves into 
one nation, to be called the United Colonies of New 



THE FIRST CONFEDERATION. 



95 



England. Here was another of the signs of inde- 
pendence that may be noted in the history of the 
colonists of Boston. It was the first combination of 
the sort in American story, and it pointed out to the 
children of the men who entered into it a mode by 
which they could make still more comprehensive and 
durable unions. 





IX. 



WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISITORS. 



From the first settlement of the promontory of 
Boston the population increased in a promising way 
until the year 1640, when certain events in the 
mother-country caused emigration almost to cease. 
Laud, " the great enemy " of New England, as Win- 
throp properly stigmatizes him, with many others 
of high condition, had been imprisoned and called 
to account by parliament, and it seemed that there 
was to be a reformation in both church and state, so 
that it would not be necessary for any to remove 
themselves over seas for the sake of peace. It has 
been estimated that during the ten years of great 
activity in emigration some twenty thousand persons 
had found their way to New England, a large number 
of whom made Boston their home. In 1638 alone it 
is said that twenty ships brought three thousand pas- 
sengers to that port. 

These immigrants made business brisk in Boston ; 
they brought articles that the colonists needed, and 
they made a market for all that the colonists pro- 
duced. When the incoming flood stopped there 
was a small financial panic ; small in comparison 
with many that have afflicted American cities since, 

96 



THE CRYING SIN OF MAN-STEALING. 97 

but great enough to give much solicitude to Gov- 
ernor Winthrop. the patriarchal father of the town 
and the colony. A cow worth twenty pounds in 
1640 would bring not more than four or five pounds 
the following year ; and the man who was accus- 
tomed to spare one cow a year from his herd and to 
clothe his family with the price of it, was now in a 
strait. There had, of course, been straits and dififi- 
culties at the beginning of the settlement ; but they 
had been manfully overcome, and industry had pro- 
duced provisions enough for home consumption and 
an overplus for exportation. The trade for the first 
seven years was small ; consisting of bartering toys, 
tools, and clothing with the natives for furs and 
skins. When the settlers found themselves able to 
produce a surplus, a trade sprung up with the Bar- 
badoes, the West Indies, and other places from 
which a profit was made that permitted the impor- 
tation of manufactured goods from England. Then 
one vessel ventured to the coast of Guinea and 
brought away slaves, for which its owners were 
called to answer, the general court bearing witness 
to " the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing," 
and ordering the return of the negroes. By degrees 
it was found possible to spare some hands from 
farming, and they were employed in getting out 
lumber for houses, in the fisheries, or in building 
vessels for the coasting trade. Merchants were in 
time tempted to come to Boston and commerce be- 
gan. As the usual supplies of manufactured goods 
became less and less, it was seen that articles of that 
sort must be produced by the colonists themselves, 



98 WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISLTORS. 

and they " fell to a manufacture of cotton, whereof 
they had store from Barbadoes, and hemp and flax." 
Then the now ancient spinning-wheel began to whirr, 
and the thump of the drowsy loom was heard day 
by day in the dwellings of the Boston housewife. For 
two hundred years these homely implements of in- 
dustry were familiar objects in all quarters of New 
England. All of these steps were taken in the most 
natural process, and not by any calculation on the 
part of the colonists. The extent of the suffer- 
ing that followed the cessation of immigration 
may be guessed at from the correspondence of the 
town. 

Corn was made legal tender in the payment of 
debts, and chosen men were sent to England to 
apologize for the slowness with which obligations 
were paid. Some of the less stable of the colonists 
returned to England ; others betook themselves to 
the West Indies or to the Dutch settlements. Mr, 
Winthrop was harassed by all this, and there was 
much disputation about the righteousness and lib- 
erty of removing " for outward advantages." Win- 
throp thought it would be hard to make it clear to 
one's conscience that it was right for those who 
came together in a wilderness where were nothing 
but wild beasts and beast-like men, and confederated 
themselves in church and state, thus impliedly at 
least binding themselves to support one another and 
the society they had formed, to break away without 
the consent of those who remained. He said to 
himself : " Ask thy conscience if thou wouldst have 
plucked up thy stakes, and brought thy family three 



J SHIP FROM ROCHELLE. 99 

thousand miles, if thou hadest expected that all or 
most would have forsaken thee there." 

The rise of the trade spirit led to a curious com- 
plication with the French of Acadie, to which early 
historians have given a prominence that proves its 
great importance in their estimation. By the treaty 
between France and England in 1632, France re- 
ceived back all of the territory in America of which 
England had despoiled her, and very soon after that 
time two rival and unscrupulous " governors of 
Acadie " appear on the scenes, the one of whom, 
La Tour, professed to be a Protestant, and the 
other, d'Aulnay, was evidently a zealous partisan 
of the Catholic church. There was an opportunity 
for Boston to increase the trade which it had already 
begun in that quarter, and though Endicott wrote 
to Winthrop that he feared there would be " little 
comfort in having any thing to do with these idola- 
trous French," the interests of Boston were so 
strongly involved in making alliance with one party 
or the other that in process of time a treaty was 
entered into with the professed Protestant. 

It was in June, 1643. The governor and his 
family were on the island in the harbor known as 
the Governor's Garden, now Governor's Island, en- 
joying the summer air ; in a boat on the water was 
Mrs. Gibbons, wife of Captain Edward Gibbons, 
going down with her children to her husband's farm 
at PuUen Point, in the present town of Winthrop. 
A French ship from Rochelle came up the harbor, 
bringing La Tour, the Protestant Acadian governor. 
One of his gentlemen recognized Mrs. Gibbons as 



lOO WELCOME AND UNWELCOME ]'JSITORS. 

one at whose house he had been hospitably enter- 
tained, and La Tour sent off his shallop to go to 
speak to her ; but she, afraid when she saw so many 
foreigners coming towards her, caused her boat to 
be turned towards the Governor's Garden and has- 
tened to the land. There she found Winthrop, with 
his wife, two of his sons, and the wife of another 
son. La Tour landed and explained to the governor 
that he had come from France, intending to make 
land at his fort at St. John's, but that his enemy had 
blockaded it, and he now came to ask help to enable 
him to force an entrance. Meantime Mrs. Gibbons 
was sent to Boston in the governor's boat, and she 
gave information of the sudden coming of the 
French. Winthrop declined to answer La Tour 
until he had consulted other members of the magis- 
tracy, and the party took supper together, after 
which all started to Boston in La Tour's boat ; but 
the towns of Boston and Charleton, having learned 
the condition of affairs, and knowing that the govern- 
or was quite in the Frenchman's power, fitted out 
three shallops of armed men to guard him and 
accompany him home. The Frenchman was sent to 
lodge at Captain Gibbons's ; but the facts of the day 
showed the citizens how defenceless their town was, 
for the strangers, had they been so disposed, might 
have captured the governor and his family, and Mrs. 
Gibbons and her attendants, as well as all the ships 
in the harbor, if, indeed, they had not sacked the 
little town. 

The reply that was made to the request of La 
Tour created much ill-feeling in the colony. It was 
determined not to afford him any help, though he 



A QUESTION OF NEUTRALITY. lOI 

was given to understand that he was at liberty to 
make whatever bargains he pleased with owners of 
ships that he could find in the harbor. La Tour 
remained in Boston a little more than a month, 
behaving himself like a gentleman and a Protestant ; 
going to meeting with the governor ; receiving enter- 
tainment at the hands of many of the town " in their 
houses and at table " ; and at last sailing away with 
four ships and a pinnace, the chiefest of which had 
sixteen pieces of ordnance and was very well manned 
and fitted for fighting, and " the rest proportionable." 
The governor was overwhelmed with correspond- 
ence upon the matter of this decision ; and a meet- 
ing of neighboring magistrates, elders, and deputies 
was held to consider " whether it were lawful for 
Christians to aid idolators, and how far we may hold 
communion with them." Indeed, weighty questions 
of neutrality and intervention were involved, and 
doubtless Winthrop's action would not stand the 
test of modern international law. The contemporary 
discussion brought into the consideration the cases 
of Jehoshaphat, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, 
Ahab and Ahaziah, the king of Babylon and Pharaoh, 
but it did not change the practical policy that Win- 
throp had adopted. The rivals kept up their war- 
fare for several years, until, in 1650 or 165 1, d'Aul- 
nay died, and in 1652 his widow married her husband's 
enemy. Though La Tour and the widow disappear 
from history, they left a number of descendants, and 
the race still lives in Nova Scotia.* 

* The story of the negotiations with La Tour and d'Aulnay is 
given with much detail in Hutchinson (ed. 1755), pp. 128-135 ; in 
Hubbard, chapter liv. ; and in Winsor's " Memorial History of 



I02 WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISITORS. 

The Puritans of Boston were Protestants of the 
Protestants, and though they were jealous of having 
among them any persons who held and taught other 
doctrines than their own, they were naturally most 
of all jealous of those who professed the " religion of 
the court of Rome," and of those holding to this, 
the " old religion," a member of one of the orders of 
the priesthood, especially the Jesuit order, was the 
most feared and hated. For this reason, taking into 
consideration " the great wars, combustions, and 
divisions" in Europe, which seemed to be chiefly 
" raised and fomented by the secret underminings 
and solicitations of those of the Jesuitical order," the 
general court of the Massachusetts Bay ordered that 
no Jesuit or spiritual or ecclesiastical person ordained 
by authority of the Pope of Rome should at any 
time be allowed within the colony ; that if any such 
found entrance, he should be banished, and on re- 
turning he should be put to death. Survivors from 
shipwreck, and public messengers behaving them- 
selves inoffensively and departing promptly, were 
excepted. Sonie " papistical " persons were in the 
company of La Tour and d'Aulnay, but they were 
carefully watched, and apparently no harm came 
from them, save the discussion that has been men- 
tioned. On one occasion two of these characters 
were brought to Boston from their vessel to confer 
with Mr. Cotton, which was certainly safe. 

There was a devoted Jesuit missionary heroically 

Boston," vol. i., pp. 282-295 ; but it must also be said that almost 
every thing that one wishes to learn is found in Mr. Winsor's store- 
house of Boston history. 



THE FIRST MASS IN BOSTON: 103 

laboring among the Abenaquis in Acadie at this 
time. Governor Winthrop wrote to the governor of 
Canada proposing free trade between the colonies, 
and in 1650 this missionary, whose name was Gabriel 
Druilletes, was sent to Boston to confer on the sub- 
ject. He appeared to the English first near the 
present site of Augusta, Maine, where he met John 
Winslow of Plymouth, then in charge of the trading 
post of his colony at that point. The conference be- 
tween the two was agreeable, and the Jesuit believed 
that the Protestant was as much interested in the 
conversion of the Indians as he was himself. Con- 
tinuing his journey, the father reached Charlestown, 
where he was commended to the hands of the same 
Edward Gibbons, of whom we read in the account 
of the sojourn of La Tour. This hospitable and 
not very radical Protestant gave the Jesuit a key to 
a private apartment in his house where he was at 
liberty to " exercise his religion " without disturb- 
ance, and there doubtless the first mass in Boston 
was said. 

Druilletes presented his credentials in due time 
to Governor Dudley, who afterwards received him 
at dinner, and listened to his message in company 
with other magistrates and one deputy. From this 
interview, Druilletes went to Plymouth, where he 
lodged with one of the persons interested in the 
Maine trade. He felt encouraged here, as he had in 
Boston, and on the day before Christmas he returned 
to the capital of the Bay colony, stopping at a place 
that he calls " Rogsbray," better known to us as 
Roxbury, where he was entertained by the minister, 



I04 WELCOME A AW UNWELCOME VISITORS. 

who was giving instruction to some savages, just as 
Druilletes had been accustomed to do in the northern 
woods. This minister he calls " Master heliot." It 
was no less a person than the Reverend John Eliot, 
the apostle to the Indians, who had arrived on the 
same ship that brought Mrs. Winthrop, and was 
at this time full of zeal in his new work of preaching 
to the Indians. Mr. Eliot urged his guest to spend 
the winter with him, in order to avoid the severe 
journey through the wilderness to Canada ; but the 
Jesuit declined, and after resting one night, resumed 
his journey to Boston, where again he was guest 
of Captain Gibbons. The purpose of the governor 
of Canada in sending Druilletes to Boston was to 
gain the help of the colonists in his war with the 
Iroquois ; but the settlers both there and at Ply- 
mouth, saw that to take such a step would involve 
them in difficulties with other tribes that had been 
friendly to them. They gave the Jesuit diplomatic 
encouragement, and entertained him very hospita- 
bly, but that was all. They were ready for trade, 
but they were determined to avoid an Indian war, if 
possible. 

When the Antinomians had been silenced there 
was still no rest to the colonists from intruders 
holding heterodox views ; and in the year 1644, it 
was thought necessary to take sharp action against 
another class of heretics. A man named Painter re- 
fused to have his infant baptized ; said that the cus. 
tom was antichristian ; and when the church, of 
which his wife was a member, enjoined him to sub- 
mit the child to the ordinance, he still refused ; upon 



FEAR OF ANABAPTISTS. 10$ 

which he was brought to court. He was sentenced 
to be whipped, the magistrates specially insisting 
that it was not for holding an opinion, but for 
" reproaching the Lord's ordinance," and for bold 
and evil behavior, some men his neighbors testifying 
that he was very loose in his conduct, and given to 
much lying and idleness. 

The court determined to be armed in time against 
offenders like Painter. They had read, as we have 
seen, of the terrible work wrought by " Anabap- 
tists " in Miinster; how they had been "incendiaries 
of commonwealths," and " troublers of churches " ; 
and how with the error about baptism of children 
they had usually held others, which they adroitly 
concealed until " they spied out a fit advantage and 
opportunity to vent them." It was therefore ordered 
that any persons who held such views wilfully and 
obstinately, should be sentenced to banishment. 
The " Anabaptist " of those days was simply a Bap- 
tist : he was one who believed in the necessity of 
being baptized in adult years, and as it was supposed 
that all persons had been baptized in infancy (as all 
children of Catholic parents had), this was a re- 
baptism. The Anabaptists of Miinster " denied the 
authority of magistrates, the lawfulness of taking 
oaths, and almost all the Christian doctrines, and 
were guilty of several gross enormities, such as po- 
lygamy, rebellion, theft, and murder," and all their 
extravagances were charged upon the opposers of 
infant baptism. No wonder the colonists were 
alarmed, if they believed such stories as were told 
of the Anabaptists ; and yet they are the people of 



I06 WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISITORS. 

whom Judge Story said that in Rhode Island they 
were the first to declare in laws that " conscience 
should be free and that men should not be punished 
for worshipping God in the way that they are per- 
suaded he requires." The people of Boston had 
good authority for fearing the Anabaptists, for 
Jeremy Taylor, the great and mild divine, wrote in 
his " Liberty of Prophesying," that their doctrines 
were as much to be rooted out as the greatest pest 
and nuisance to the public interest. 

The men of Boston were not, however, all agreed 
in the matter of punishing Baptists, though there 
was not very much dissent. The town showed that 
the character which Governor Hutchinson gives it 
was deserved at this early period, for in 1649 the 
court addressed a letter to the brethren at Plymouth 
pathetically remonstrating with them for harboring 
Baptists in that sister colony, which, they urged, was 
not in accordance with the articles of confederation. 
To this the Plymouth men sent no very hearty 
response, and the court at Boston was accordingly 
grieved. The story of the dealings of Boston with 
the Baptists is a disagreeable one, and may be passed 
over after mentioning one notable case, which brings 
us to the origin of the college of the colony. 

In the year 1636, the court ordered that a public 
school should be established somewhere. The fol- 
lowing year it was decided to put it at New Town, 
and a committee was appointed to carry the order 
into elTect. This committee was composed of Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, John Cotton, Thomas Shepard, and 
four others, who were cither ministers or elders. In 



MR. EATON BEATS MR. BRISCOE. 107 

1638 it was ordered that New Town should be called 
Cambridge, in consideration of the fact that a num- 
ber of the persons interested in the school were 
graduates of the University at Old Cambridge. In 
March, 1639, it was voted that the " colledge " to be 
built at Cambridge should be known as Harvard 
College, in consequence of the fact that the Rev- 
erend John Harvard had become its benefactor. 
One Nathaniel Eaton was appointed " Schoolmas- 
ter," for the name college was not immediately 
adopted in common usage. It was not long before 
Eaton was accused before the court for " cruel and 
barbarous beating " of his usher, Mr. Nathaniel 
Briscoe, and he was in consequence fined heavily, 
discharged from keeping the school, and directed to 
give Mr. Briscoe thirty pounds for the wrong done 
him. 

It appears that Mr. Eaton's ideas of proper cor- 
poral punishment allowed him to beat Mr. Briscoe 
for the space of about two hours with a " walnut- 
tree plant, big enough to have killed a horse,- and a 
yard in length." Not unnaturally, during the two 
hours of this unscholarly exercise, Mr. Briscoe 
thought that he was about to be murdered, whereupon 
he " fell to prayer," and Mr. Eaton only rained his 
blows the harder, accusing his poor usher of " taking 
the name of God in vain." It came out, upon the trial 
which ensued, that it was Mr. Eaton's usual custom 
to beat his pupils in this way ; and besides, that he 
ordinarily furnished them but " porridge and pud- 
ding, and that very homely," for their diet, though 
their friends gave him large allowance for their 



I08 WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISITORS. 

board.* The reprobate schoolmaster fled from the 
jurisdiction, and was reported to have gone to Vir- 
ginia, where " he was given up of God to extreme 
pride and sensuaHty, being usually drunken, as the 
custom is there." 

This was not a good beginning for the college of 
the colony ; but the error was soon rectified, and, in 
1640, the able and engaging, though perhaps liti- 
gious, Henry Dunster was made president of the 
young institution, just after he had arrived in Boston. 
He was, like John Harvard, a graduate of Emanuel 
College, Cambridge, and he adopted the course of 
study of the English university, aiming at the edu- 
cation of a learned ministry. The school soon 
earned a reputation sufificient to draw students from 
the other side of the sea. In its twelfth year the 
college was made a corporation, Mr. Dunster being 
confirmed in his office as president ; but doubts in 
time began to be expressed regarding his soundness 
in the faith, and clouds were rising about his path. 

Mr. Dunster was a member of the church of the 
Reverend Thomas Shepard, and when that " soul- 
ravishing " preacher died, in 1649, Dunster occupied 
his pulpit until a successor was found. By insensi- 
ble degrees the president of Harvard College came 
to hold doubts regarding the doctrine of baptism, 
and, in 1653, he found himself unable to agree with 

* Eaton's wife confessed that the flour of which the porridge was 
made was not "so fine as it might be, nor so well boiled or stirred " ; 
and that when the pupils' called for more butter and cheese, they 
were denied ; and she confessed her sin in giving them " bad fish," 
and for " letting the blackamoor sleep in Sam Hough's sheet and 
pillow-bier," and in giving them bread made of heated sour meal. 



MR. DUNSTER RESIGNS. IO9 

his church on the subject. A young minister named 
Mitchell, who succeeded Shepard, remonstrated with 
the president for his " intolerable offence," but, as he 
found misgivings arising in his own mind, he with- 
drew, with such a " strange confusion and sickliness 
upon his spirit " that his study for the following 
Sabbath was interrupted. He was thereafter afraid 
to go needlessly to Mr. Dunster, because he detected 
"venom and poison in his insinuations." When 
Mr. Mitchell's discoveries came to the knowledge of 
others, it was found necessary for Mr. Dunster to 
vacate his office as teacher of orthodox youth, and 
he accordingly resigned his position and withdrew 
from Cambridge.* Ten years afterwards the First 

* Any one curious in regard to Mr. Dunster's ability as a literary 
critic should read the " Bay Psalm Book," the first American printed 
book, prepared by others, but afterwards submitted to the president 
that he mighf " use a little more art upon it " (1650). The verses 
are, the authors confess, " not always so smooth and elegant as some 
may desire or expect," even in their refined state. The nineteenth 
Psalm began thus : 

" The heavens do declare 
The majesty of God ; 
Also the firmament shows forth 
His handiwork abroad." 
Joseph Addison did better threescore years later, when he wrote 
" The spacious firmament on high." The third edition (which is 
the one " revised and refined " by Dunster) contains some spiritual 
songs, in one of which the following lines occur : 
" Gad the Kenite, Heber's wife 
'bove women blest shall be, 
Above the women in the tent 

a blessed one is she. 
He water ask'd, she gave him milk : 

in lordly dish she fetch'd 
Him butter forth : unto the nail 
she forth her left hand stretched." 



no WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VISITORS. 

Baptist Society was organized in Boston, and, much 
to the dismay and scandal of many, it proved strong 
enough to keep on in its way. Its services have 
endured to this day. 

The next intruders upon the Boston colonists were 
much more troublesome, and the story of their suf- 
ferings is so sad that one hesitates to revive it, and 
we must be permitted simply to sketch some of its 
traits. In the middle of the summer of 1656 it was 
rumored that a ship in the harbor was bringing to 
the town two women, from England, by the way of 
the Barbadoes, who had embraced the heretical doc- 
trines of George Fox. There had been fears that 
some of the Quaker sect might come to Boston, and 
in May there had been a day of fasting on this 
account. A Quaker says of the occasion : " Two 
poor women arriving in your harbor so shook ye, to 
the everlasting shame of you, and of your established 
peace and order, as if a formidable army had invaded 
your borders." 

This was true, for the authorities took almost as 
great precaution against harm from Anne Austin 
and Mary Fisher as they would have taken to pre- 
serve the town from an armed invasion. Acting 
probably under the law by which Mrs. Hutchinson 
was condemned, the master of the ship was directed 
to take the women back to the Barbadoes, their 
books and papers were to be burned, and they them- 
selves to be confined in the jail until the ship Sival- 
low, in which they had come, should sail away. 
Hardly had these intruders been gotten rid of when 
another vessel arrived from the same place with four 



THE TREATMENT OF QUAKERS. Ill 

men and four women of the like stripe, and they 
received the same treatment. This was the most 
merciful dealing that was meted out to any of the 
Quakers. As soon as the general court could meet, 
a stringent law was passed, threatening fines, im- 
prisonment, banishment, and whipping against any 
" Quakers, ranters, or other blasphemous heretics " — 
" fit instruments to propagate the kingdom of 
Sathan." The banishment was, at a later period, 
ordered to be enforced by pain of death in case of 
the return of the condemned. This law, it ought to 
be said, was passed by a majority of one, and an 
absent deputy cried out in horror that he would 
have crept to the meeting-place on his hands and 
knees to have prevented it. 

Banished Quakers found that they could go to 
Rhode Island and be safe, whereupon the New Eng- 
land Confederation advised that plantation to send 
them off ; but the president of Rhode Island replied 
that there was no law in his jurisdiction by which 
these persons could be punished, and that he found 
that they did not care to go to places where they 
were opposed by argument only ; that they delighted 
to be persecuted, and that they were the most dan- 
gerous where they were the most hardly used. 
Roger Williams, though acknowledging that the 
Quakers were " insufferably proud and contentious," 
would not persecute them. Doubtless, too, a feeling 
of pity for the sufferers was rising among the people 
of Boston, which increased as their fate became 
more and more severe. We find that, in 1659, when 
there was to be an execution of two Quakers after 



112 WELCOME AND UNWELCOME VLSLTORS. 

the Thursday lecture,* great precaution was taken to 
" see things carried peaceably and orderly," and the 
procession from the jail to the Common was by a 
back way, " lest the people should be affected too 
much " if it went through the chief thoroughfare. 
This feeling of humanity seems to have increased, 
as the atrocious acts of the magistrates continued to 
shock the townsmen, and it led to more merciful 
treatment of Quakers. The end came for a while in 
1660, and the prison doors were opened for such as 
had been confined ; but it happened that at the same 
time a letter was received in Boston from the king, 
Charles II., commanding this very action. It has 
long been supposed that the king's missive opened 
the Quakers' prison doors ; but it is at least possible 
that public opinion in Boston had anticipated it. 
Let us hope, for the credit of humanity, that it had. 
The respite was, however, temporary. Quakers 
were suffering by the hundred in England, and they 
were not free from persecution in Boston until 1677, 
when Margaret Brewster, who came from the Bar- 
badoes, like the first invaders, having entered the 
Old South meeting-house in sackcloth, with her face 
blackened, her feet bare, and with ashes on her head, 
was whipped for the offence. A few days later 
others were treated in the same way for attending 
upon their own meetings. Public opinion could 
then be no longer aggravated, and the lash was not 

* Wm, Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson were hanged October 
27th. Mary Dyer, who stood with a halter about her neck, was 
reprieved, but she suffered the next year. See Ellis's " Puritan 
Rule," pp. 463, 472. 



THE QUAKERS HAVE PEACE. 



113 



again flourished over the defenceless Quakers. With 
its disuse the objectionable acts of the sect dimin- 
ished. The number of those who can be called 
" turbulent " was never large, and it is difBcult for 
us, who know the quiet Friends as the modest and 
lovable citizens that they are, to connect any sort 
of disorder with the sect to which they belong. 






0\\ ^^"^1 '^.:r 







X. 



THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 



During most of the time that we have thus far 
reviewed, Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop lived together in 
their modest but commodious dwelling on the pres- 
ent Washington Street. Mrs. Winthrop died there 
in 1647. Two years later the governor, Avho had 
meanwhile married a fourth time, followed her, and 
was buried in the graveyard of King's Chapel. For 
twelve of the nineteen years of his life in Boston 
John Winthrop held the office of governor, and 
during the other years he was entrusted with official 
duties of almost equal importance. While he sat 
among the elders, his faithful Margaret followed the 
example of the good wife described in Scripture, 
seeking wool and flax and working diligently with 
her hands. They were wakened from sleep in the 
morning at half-past four o'clock by the sounding of 
the public bell, and the curfew bid them to cover 
their coals and retire at nine in the evening. In 
1649 Richard Taylor agreed with the selectmen to 
ring the bell for four pounds a year. 

The Winthrop household was ahva}'s well supplied 
with the comforts of the time, though the dwelling 
was probably itself not the most elegant of those 

114 



COMFORT AND ELEGANCE. II5 

that adorned the growing town in the governor's 
later years. Information gathered from early inven- 
tories and other sources shows that there was much 
comfort and elegance in many of the Boston dwell- 
ings. The principal hall was often ornamented with 
pictures and lighted from a great lantern, while there 
might have been a velvet cushion in the window- 
seat that gave upon the well-kept garden. There 
was a great parlor and a small one, — the latter 
being sometimes known as the study, — which were 
supplied with large mirrors, tasteful curtains, por- 
traits and maps, brass clocks, chairs, which we now 
like to copy, with high backs covered with red 
leather, and in the ample fire-place stood the bright 
brass andirons. In the chambers were bedsteads 
with high corner-posts, often richly carved, and sup- 
plied with feather-beds, warming-pans, and all the 
luxuries of the day. The pantry was filled with 
good fare, with dainties, prunes, and marmalade, 
and the sideboard was ornamented with silver tank- 
ards and wine cups and other articles of silver and 
glass ; while the cellar was stored with good ale, and 
with materials from which to brew the smoking punch 
that was brought before guests on the occasions of 
festivity, when there had been an ordination, per- 
chance, or a meeting of the clergy, for the clergy in 
the olden time, rigid as was their theology, were not 
at all averse to the good creatures of sense, and en- 
joyed their punch and pasty as much as any layman 
of them all. There were servants enough in the 
Boston families, though in 1634 it was permitted 
the governor by vote of the court to " entertain" an 



Il6 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

Indian as additional help in this capacity. Mrs. 
Winthrop was, however, not above going to the 
spring conveniently near (on the present Spring 
Lane) to draw water, and we know that the governor 
gave his people a good example by " putting his 
hand to any ordinary labor with his servants." 

Twice every Sunday for ten years the family fol- 
lowed the custom of the colony by walking around 
to the meeting-house, which stood on the present 
State Street near the corner of Devonshire ; but in 
1640 the humble building there was replaced by a 
new structure, which stood on Washington Street 
near by, and was the only meeting-house during the 
rest of the lifetime of the first governor. This edi- 
fice was not only used for religious services, but also 
for meetings of the magistrates, and, naturally 
enough, for there was a close connection between 
the two in a theocratic government, which based its 
proceedings largely upon precedents found in the 
Bible. 

Twice each Sunday the drum-call summoned 
the townspeople to the meeting-house, where the 
men took their places on one side, and the women 
on the other, the boys being relegated to the super- 
vision of a special officer charged with the by no 
means unimportant duty of keeping them in order 
through the long sermon. Below the high pulpit, 
and just in front of it, sat the elders, and still nearer 
the body of the people were the deacons, both groups 
looking over the demure assembly. The men of the 
congregation were armed, as if in fear of interruption 
by the Indians. When all was ready the services 



MR. HOOKER PREACHES LONG. W] 

began. They included singing, perhaps at first from 
the Psalter of Sternhold and Hopkins,* renowned 
for its adherence to the original Hebrew, of which 
Montgomery said that it was " the resemblance of 
the dead to the living." There was no instrumental 
help to harmony, and the tunes seldom counted 
more than five or ten for eighty or ninety years. 
There was extemporaneous prayer, sometimes of 
great length, and a sermon, which it was thought 
ought not to be less than an hour, measured by the 
sand-glass visible to the hearers on the sacred desk, 
though it was often much longer, Mr. Winthrop 
mentions, that on one of the few occasions when he 
was absent from his accustomed congregation on the 
Lord's Day, he went with many others to Cambridge 
to hear Mr. Hooker, who, after having preached for 
a quarter of an hour, found himself deprived both 
" of his strength and matter " ; but he " went forth, 
and about half an hour afterwards returned again, 

* The new version of the Psalms, which was revised by President 
Dunster ten years later, appeared the year that the second meeting- 
house was built, and then the good Bostonians, who abhorred the 
help of " cornet, flute, dulcimer, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of 
[instrumental] music," joined their tuneful voices in singing to some 
one of the half-a-dozen melodies then in vogue such words as these : 

" I in my streights, cal'd on the Lord, 
and to my God cry'd : he did heare 
from his temple my voyce, my crye 
before him came, unto his eare. . . . 
And he on cherub rode, and flew : 
yea he flew on the wings of winde. 
His secret place he darknes made 
his covert that him round confinde, 
Dark waters, and thick clouds of skies." 



Il8 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

and went on to very good purpose about two hours." 
This was in 1639. These were heroic days. 

In the church that the Bostonians had left, the 
Bible was read in the hearing of the congregation 
without note or comment ; here it was called " dumb 
reading" to read it so, and the text was accompanied 
with explanations and applications, according to the 
learning or the peculiar spirit of the clergyman. 
Occasionally a minister from another congregation 
was present, and at such times, after the Psalm had 
been sung, the elder would rise and say : " If this 
present brother hath any word of exhortation for the 
people at this time, in the name of God let him say 
on." It was called prophesying if the stranger then 
preached. The regular feasts of the Church were 
utterly ignored ; but in their place there was the 
Thursday-forenoon lecture, besides other week-day 
meetings, and fasts and thanksgiving-days were 
appointed by the authorities from time to time. 

The families of Boston were possessors of a good 
many books, all of which had been brought from the 
other side of the ocean, of course, until Stephen Daye 
came over in 1638, and set up widow Glover's print- 
ing-press in Cambridge. The following year it be- 
gan its work with an almanac and an oath intended 
for the freemen to set their names to ; these being 
followed by the Bay Psalm Book, which President 
Dunster " refined " in 1650. He had, in 1641, mar- 
ried the widow Glover, and the press had in that way 
indirectly passed under the control of the college.* 

* Mrs. Dunster died two years after her second marriage. She 
left several children by her first husband, two of whom married sons 
of Governor Winthrop. 



EMISSARIES OF SATAN ABROAD. 1 19 

It was not till 1674 that John Foster had permission 
from the court to set up a press " elsewhere than in 
Cambridge," and thus he became the first Boston 
printer, his office being established the last month of 
that year, at "the Sign of a Dove," where he printed, 
as his first book, a sermon by Increase Mather, en- 
titled " The Wicked Man's Portion." These presses 
did not, however, greatly increase the number of 
books ; but many pamphlets and sermons appeared 
from time to time, and in 1678 the first American 
edition of the poems of Anne Bradstreet was issued 
from this the first Boston press. 

Boston and the Bay colony had for ten years no 
laws except the common law of England, and the 
court was well occupied in framing ordinances aimed 
at evil-doers as their acts required repression ; and 
in this connection the promptness with which " that 
ould deluder, Satan," managed to get his emissaries 
among the select band that sought to flee from his 
influence strikes one as not a little strange. The 
Bostonians had scarcely settled upon the promon- 
tory of Shawmut, when it was found necessary to 
enact laws against some of the most bestial offences, 
and the necessity for a statute law was soon appar- 
ent. In 1636 John Cotton was asked to give sug- 
gestions on this matter, and in October he presented 
a draft of " Moses, his Judicials," amply fortified by 
" proof-texts " in the margin,* the whole being sup- 
ported by the words, quoted from Isaiah : " The 

* Thus : — " The governor hath power ... to send out warrants 
for the calling of the general court." (And Joshua gathered all the 
tribes of Israel to Shechem. Josh., xxiv., i.) 



120 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the 
Lord is our King ; he will save us." This effort was 
in accordance with the plan of a biblical common- 
wealth which the founders of the colony desired to 
establish, but it was not accepted. 

The following year it was ordered by the court 
that the freemen of the several towns should gather 
and prepare such laws as they thought necessary 
under the circumstances of the colony, which were to 
be digested by the council and three elders, and the 
result presented to the court ; but it proved that the 
people were inexperienced in such work, and prob- 
ably thought that the method which had been pur- 
sued — of making laws as they were called for — would 
suffice. There was, however, in New England at the 
time a scholar of ripeness and eccentricity able to do 
the work. He was a graduate of Emanuel College; 
had practised law some years in England ; was an 
acquaintance of Francis Bacon and of Archbishop 
Usher ; had been in somewhat familiar intercourse 
with other men and some women in high life ; had 
served as parish priest for ten years in England, un- 
til ejected by Laud ; and was then for a while pas- 
tor of a parish in the raw settlement at Agawam — 
now prosaic Ipswich. At the moment when Cotton 
was compiling his Judicials, this scholar — Nathaniel 
Ward — was meditating on the badness of the times 
upon which he had fallen, and grumbling at the pro- 
faneness of many about him and the " foul shame of 
religious toleration," which he berated not long after 
in one of the raciest books of the day, " The Simple 
Cobbler of Agawam." 



LOCAL LAW SUPREME. 12 1 

Nathaniel Ward decided to prepare the needed 
statutes, and accordingly presented to the court a 
" Body of Liberties," consisting of one hundred laws. 
After a discussion lasting three weeks these were 
adopted, as a response to a popular clamor that 
arose for something settled which would bring the 
"interminable consultation of the towns" to an end. 
The biblical character of the legislation is evident 
from a provision that in case of any defect of the 
body of liberties, the Law of God should be the ulti- 
mate rule of administration. The law of Ward was 
more merciful than that of the mother-country, and 
mentioned but ten capital offences, though there 
were thirty such in England at the close of the reign 
of Elizabeth, and more than twice that number at a 
later period. Ward supported each of his capital 
penalties with a scriptural text, though in the rest of 
the code he did not imitate the compilation of Cot- 
ton in that respect. These laws were to be consid- 
ered annually by the court for three years, and such 
of them as were not altered or repealed were to stand. 

The establishment of the fundamental laws just 
mentioned was a most important step on the part of 
the colonists. It has been called almost a declara- 
tion of independence, for the code began with an as- 
sertion that neither life, liberty, honor, nor estate was 
to be invaded, except by virtue of an express law es- 
tablished by local authority ; and it certainly verged 
closely upon opposition to the rule of the sovereign. 
It declared to the world that while the charter al- 
lowed no laws to be enacted under it " repugnant to 
the laws of England," the colonists felt themselves 



122 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

empowered to build up such a system as the circum- 
stances of the people demanded. 

Those persons who had been sent out of the 
colony as unfit to live there had, as we know, 
carried prejudicial reports home regarding the spirit 
of independence that was growing up, even before 
Winthrop's arrival, and these were repeated fre- 
quently from time to time. The first efforts to lead 
the government to interfere proved signal failures ; 
but they were only the beginning of a long struggle 
which lasted more than fifty years, and finally suc- 
ceeded. In 1634, there was a direct demand by the 
English government that the charter should be de- 
livered up, but the governor and council declined to 
surrender it. There seems to have been a feeling in 
Boston, as well as elsewhere, that the possession of 
the actual parchment, signed and sealed by the sov- 
ereign or his agent, was necessary to the preservation 
of liberty, and we find that after a while it was ord- 
ered that two or three persons should be appointed 
by each house to " keep safe and secret the said 
patent." 

The colonists were fully determined not to give up 
their charter without a struggle, but they also decided 
that the best policy for them was to make long con- 
sultations and discussions, and thus to avoid a direct 
reply whenever possible, while using diplomatic words 
that were intended to be received as professions of 
loyalty to the powers that happened to be upper- 
most in England at a given time. 

There was great alarm in I^oston on the occasion 
of this very demand for the charter, for it was 



BOSTON PREPARES FOR WAR. 1 23 

rumored that the rights of the colonists were to 
be invaded by a governor and commission from 
England authorized to make laws, call in patents, 
and levy taxes. A meeting was held at which all 
the ministers (except Mr. Ward) were present, and it 
was voted that such a governor if sent over ought 
not to be accepted, but that the colonists should 
defend their lawful possessions. The court appro- 
priated six hundred pounds towards fortifications 
and other charges at Castle Island, at Charlestown, 
and Dorchester, and captains were directed to train 
skilful men, while a committee, comprising Win- 
throp, Dudley, and others was appointed to " con- 
sult, direct, and give command for the managing 
and ordering of any war that might befal." Forts 
were begun ; a beacon was set on the Sentry hill, 
" to give notice to the country of any danger " ; 
musket-balls were made a legal tender; and every 
man older than sixteen years was obliged to take 
the freeman's oath ; while a military commission 
was formed with power to imprison or even to 
put to death, " any that they should judge to be 
enemies to the commonwealth," or who "would not 
come under their command or restraint." This was 
the reply, and the only reply that the court made to 
the demand for its charter, in 1635, and it looked 
much like a threat. 

The English government was not idle, and after 
many other movements on both sides, another, and 
a very strict order, was sent to Governor Winthrop 
for delivering up the charter ; upon which the court 
directed that a letter should be written to " excuse 



124 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

our not sending it." Accordingly Winthrop wrote a 
very dignified letter, in which he said that the colo- 
nists would like to know what charges had been made 
against them, and urged reasons why the demand 
should not be insisted upon. He expressed a desire 
not to question the proceedings up to that point, but 
to " open the griefs of the colonists," so that the king 
might judge how to remedy them. The reply to 
this letter was a peremptory repetition of the de- 
mand ; but the order was sent to Mr. Cradock, 
through his agent, and the court did not respond, 
since the demand had been received " in a private 
letter " and not in official form. The mother-coun- 
try was by this time in so much confusion that no 
more notice could be taken of the remote colonies, 
and for thirty years matters went on in Boston and 
the Bay colony as though the people there were inde- 
pendent. 

The year 1640 is to be remembered for an attempt 
that was made by Lord Say and Sele to dissuade 
emigrants from America, and to turn them to the 
West Indies ; in fact to break up the colony of the 
Massachusetts Bay for that purpose. Governor Win- 
throp wrote a letter on this subject which must have 
been very forceful, for it drew from Lord Say and 
Sele a reply of the most spirited description. Win- 
throp showed, to his own satisfaction at least, that it 
was evident that God had chosen America to plant 
his people in, and that it would be dangerous and 
displeasing to try to change such a plan, and that 
his lordship ought not to " abase the goodness of 
the country." It is interesting to note in passing 



INVITED TO IRELAND. 1 25 

that when Cromwell had conquered Ireland, in 1649, 
and wished to keep that country in subjection, he 
bethought himself of the few thousand Englishmen 
in New England, and invited them to come over and 
occupy the land. Some persons expressed a wish to 
learn more of the project ; but there was no general 
desire to change their abode. Similar offers were 
made by Cromwell in 1655 to the New Englanders, 
if they would go to Jamaica which his fleet had re- 
duced. The Massachusetts court read Cromwell's 
letter, after a delay of eight months, and composed 
a reply in which reference was made to the great 
mortality of the English in Jamaica, and the inten- 
tion of the Americans to remain where they were, 
though they assured " his Highness " that they 
would never cease to pray for him. They had 
written to him in 165 1 that during the ten years 
of his trouble with the late king they had constantly 
adhered to him, not even wavering in the times of 
his weakest condition, but by their " fasting and 
prayers for your good success," and our thanksgiv- 
ing after the same was attained, in days of solemnity 
set apart for the purpose, as also "by our sending 
over useful men," they had done him acceptable ser- 
vice and suffered hatred from other English colonies, 
and damage from the king's party, from the king of 
Scots, and the king of Portugal. Neither of these 
schemes was further urged by Cromwell, who, by the 
way, was otherwise engaged pretty soon. 

Boston was meantime prosperous. The wigwams, 
huts, and hovels of the first days were changed into 
" orderly, fair, and well-built houses, well furnished " ; 



126 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

it was a " city-like town," wharfed out with great 
industry and cost, the buildings beautiful and large, 
some fairly set forth with brick, tile, stone, and slate, 
and orderly placed with comely streets, " whose con- 
tinual enlargement presages some sumptuous city." 
There were " streets filled with girls and boys sport- 
ing up and down " with a great concourse of people, 
where once -w ere " wolves and bears nursing their 
young " far from the eyes of all. Dr. Ellis has 
drawn a picture of some of the wants and needs of 
the inhabitants of Boston at this time in his work on 
the " Puritan Age." He says: 

" A grim wilderness environed them, with real and 
visionary dangers in its dark shadows. Marshes, moras- 
ses, unbridged streams and devious trails made inter- 
course diflficult and all travel tedious. The numerous 
inventories left to us of household goods, of farm imple- 
ments, and of apparel, are often amusing illustrations of 
simple thrift, and of the frugality, paucity, and rudeness 
of their furnishings, which still were of such relative 
value as to be carefully appraised. The tortures of the 
medical and surgical practice of those days were fearful 
for endurance. Our light foot-gear and water-proof pro- 
tection for snow-storms and tempests found substitutes 
for them in boots of hide smeared with grease, and 
doublets of leather which drank in the water so that 
they had to be cast aside as the weight increased. The 
spoils of the hunter and safety from the Indian foe were 
won by the long gun supported by a ' rest,' and fired by a 
matchlock. What would the housewife and the forest- 
traveller of those days have been ready to give for a 
bunch of friction-matches, the cost of which for us is 



THE FATHER OF BOSTON DIES. 1 27 

one cent ! The lack of any currency, save Indian shell- 
peage, caused all traffic to be by barter of produce or 
labor at shifting values. The entire lack of all the de- 
lights of intellectual intercourse and of literature, save 
those of the most lugubrious character, must have had a 
most depressing influence upon the spirits of those 
who were so intently brooding over dismal theological 
problems." * 

There was nothing, or little, to make the citizens 
think of the tumultuous doings that history records 
as going on in the mother-country; but they came 
to the knowledge of them in time. 

John Winthrop died, in 1649, and was buried in 
the yard of King's Chapel, where his sepulchre may 
be seen to this day. He had been governor of " the 
considerablest part of New England," as Mather said, 
and " he maintained the figure and honor of his 
place with the spirit of a true gentleman." He let 
his moderation be known to all men; he "abridged 
himself of a thousand comfortable things " that he 
had been accustomed to, for the sake of those who 
were about him. He was a true father, not only to 
Massachusetts, and to the New England Confedera- 
tion, of which he was chief, but also to Boston, and 
by his cheerful courage sustained the spirits of his 
companions when they were ready to droop. He 
was mild, magnanimous, and firm ; he was benevo- 
lent and sympathetic ; mildly aristocratic, but con- 
sistent and well-balanced ; the noble founder of a 
state and a civilization. He had nourished the 
church, the school, the college ; he had laid the 

* " The Puritan Age and Rule," page 38. 



128 THE CHARTER IS ATTACKED. 

foundation of a system of laws that was to endure ; 
he was mourned by the Dutch Stuyvesant, at the 
New Netherlands, and by the governor of New Haven, 
who wondered who could be chosen to take his 
place in the arbitration of differences that might 
arise in the future, as they had in the past. 

The place left vacant in Boston was occupied at 
first by Thomas Dudley, who did not long survive, 
and then by John Endicott, who lived through the 
time of the Commonwealth, and died during the 
struggle with Charles the Second for the charter. 




XI. 



THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 



When Winthrop had been in Boston five years 
there arrived an emigrant who was the first of a 
family destined to furnish poHtical and ecclesiastical 
leaders to the town for the whole of the colonial 
period. Richard Mather, for fifteen years minister 
of the church at Toxteth, finding himself in danger 
on account of his dissent, fled to America in 1635, 
and as his reputation was already known, he was im- 
mediately accepted as a " mighty man," and several 
parishes strove for his services. Mr. Mather relates 
that on his long and dangerous voyage he saw 
" mighty whales spewing up water in the air like the 
smoke of a chimney, and making the sea about them 
white and hoary," and they were " of such incredible 
bigness " that he exclaimed, " I will never wonder 
that the body of Jonah could be in the belly of a 
whale." 

When put to the proof in Boston this mighty man 
was found to be as learned in the classics and in the 
Scriptures as his fame promised; his voice was 
"loud and big," and he uttered his words with a 
" deliberate vehemency " which, in the language of 
the day, " procured unto his ministry an awful and 

129 



130 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

very taking majesty." He went to Dorchester and 
remained there until his death in 1689. He wrote 
many of the ponderous tomes of the period, com- 
posed the preface to the Bay Psahn Book, as well as 
some of its marvellous verses ; showed himself a 
voracious reader and an indefatigable student ; and 
established his fame on a lasting foundation both as 
a leader in church and state. 

There were preachers of note in Boston besides 
Mr. Mather, and among them Mr. John Cotton and 
Mr. John Norton are to be especially remembered 
for the influence they exerted upon the town in its 
impressionable stage. Mr. Cotton was for twenty 
years minister to the congregation that gathered in 
the great church of St. Botolph, at old Boston; but 
in the year 1633, when Laud became archbishop, he 
found it necessary, like so many others, to seek the 
American shores. He came to Boston with Thomas 
Hooker and Samuel Stone, also distinguished lights 
in the New England pulpit, and was preacher to the 
First Church until his death in 1652. He has left 
behind him nothing that gives to the present gen- 
eration any strong impression of the " insinuating 
and melting " style in which he is said to have 
preached — a style that is reputed to " have carried 
away every adversary captive after the triumphant 
chariot of his rhetoric," and it seems to us often, 
as we shake the dust from the volumes in which 
the ponderous pulpit oratory of those days is em- 
balmed, that Boston audiences must have been very 
easily " captivated " by dry disquisitions ; though it 
must be allowed that in the printed page we lose 



PONDEROUS PULPIT ORATORY. 131 

all the earnest fervor which a preacher, loved by 
his flock for his social virtues, threw into his formal 
utterances, and we are apt to forget, too, that an 
emigrant people who esteemed themselves perse- 
cuted for righteousness' sake, felt that there was a 
reality and an appropriateness in doctrinal discourses 
that cannot be appreciated by their descendants who 
have for generations enjoyed the peace that resulted 
from their tribulations. Mr. Cotton's death was 
brought on by a cold caught in consequence of 
exposure in crossing the ferry on a visit to Cam- 
bridge, whither he went to preach to the students of 
Harvard College.* 

John Norton appeared in Boston three years later 
than Mr. Cotton, and immediately attracted atten- 
tion by his scholarship, eloquence, and wisdom. He 
reluctantly accepted a call to Ipswich, where he 
was assistant to the Agawam Cobbler until he was 
chosen successor to Mr. Cotton. He then removed 
to Boston, and took up his new duties in 1653, 
though it was three years before he was installed. 
We read that the court formally expressed its con- 
gratulations upon his accession to this influential 
post of duty, which was not a strange thing for 
the court to do in the days when church and state 
were intimately connected. Both of these ministers 
exerted a powerful influence upon the town both 
politically and in their religious capacity, and were 

* The ferry over the Charles River from Brighton was at the foot of 
Dunster Street. In 1662 a bridge was built at the foot of the present 
Boylston Street, on account of the increase of travel, especially on 
lecture days. 



132 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

complimented by their people with constant expres- 
sions of fondness, but they left behind them no pos- 
terity equal to them in this respect, to continue their 
prestige. This the Mathers did, founding a dynasty 
which continued in uncrowned power for almost a 
century. 

The second person to honor the name Mather was 
born in the year 1639, and in consequence of the fact 
that there was " increase of every sort " at the time, 
he received the name Increase, which in his formal 
writings he sometimes translated into Latin — " Cres- 
centius." At the time of Winthrop's death he was 
almost ready for Harvard College, and he actually 
entered at the age of twelve ; though he did not take 
his first degree until he was seventeen. Two years 
later he preached in his father's pulpit and then 
sailed for Ireland, where he became a student at 
Trinity College, Dublin. After the Restoration he 
found it best to return to his native land, and in 
1644 he became minister of the North Church, Bos- 
ton, which stood on North Square, then the very 
centre of the most aristocratic and influential homes. 
His own dwelling was on North Street, near Clark. 

For almost sixty years Increase Mather continued 
to hold the congregation by the force of his person- 
ality, the strength of his logic, the adroitness of his 
policy, and the sagacity of his devices. No man was 
so powerful in Boston as he for the first half of that 
period, and few or none dared to stand up against 
his known views. Probably his scholarship and his 
accomplishments have not suffered by the mediums 
through which their fame has been carried down to 




^<*^ a^ Jt^,^ 






134 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

posterity ; but making all allowances for the favora- 
ble prejudices of his biographers, we may conclude 
that he enjoyed an ability to labor which is almost 
incomprehensible, that his knowledge had a wonder- 
ful sweep, and that his diligence as a writer and 
speaker, as well as a counsellor to his fellow-towns- 
people, was so great that one marvels that his 
physical system did not break under it long before 
he had reached fourscore years of age. 

Increase Mather married a daughter of John Cot- 
ton, and thus united two noted families ; the eldest 
child of the couple, who has been called the " literary 
behemoth of New England," in the colonial era, was 
named, for his grandfather. Cotton. The historian 
of our literature calls him " a precocious and de- 
cidedly priggish young gentleman," with a well- 
developed sense of his own importance.* He entered 
Harvard at the age of eleven, and when he gradu- 
ated, the president, Urian Oakes, in handing him his 
diploma, exclaimed, in Latin, " What a name ! But, 
my hearers, I confess I am wrong ; I should have 
said, what names ! I shall say nothing of his rever- 
end father, since I dare not praise him to his face ; 
but, should he resemble and represent his venerable 
grandfathers, John Cotton and Richard Mather, in 
piety, learning, and elegance of mind, solid judg- 
ment, prudence, and wisdom, he will bear away the 
palm ; and I trust that in this youth Cotton and 

* " A History of American Literature," by Moses Coit Tyler. In 
this work one may read an entertaining sketch of the " Mather 
Dynasty," in which the merits and defects of each member of the 
family are brought out in an agreeable manner. 



COTTON MATHER'S AMBITION. I 35 

Mather will be united and flourish again." Certainly 
this was high praise, and well calculated to make 
the young student all the self-conscious and self- 
important personage that he became. Increase 
Mather returned his share of the fulsome compli- 
ment in 1682, when he wrote that Oakes " was one 
of the greatest lights that ever shone in this part 
of the world, or that is ever like to arise in this 
horizon." 

.Cotton Mather was a strange mixture of strength 
and weakness, of wisdom and poor judgment ; his 
conceit must have been unbearable, and in his works 
it is simply ludicrous. Two notable examples of 
his self-appreciation are connected with Harvard 
College, for the presidency of which he supposed 
himself eminently adapted, though the corporation 
did not agree with him. When President Willard 
died in 1707, Mather thought that he ought to be 
chosen in the vacant place, and actually gave him- 
self to fasting and other exercises, in expectation of 
the appointment ; but it did not come. In 1724, on 
the death of President Leverett, he was certain that 
he could be " of singular service " to the college, but 
Dr. Sewall was chosen ; whereupon Mather writes : 
" I am informed that yesterday the six men who call 
themselves the corporation of the college met, and, 
contrary to the epidemical expectation of the coun- 
try, chose a modest young man, Sewall, for whose 
piety (and little else) every one gives a laudable 
character." He adds, characteristically:"! always 
foretold these two things of the corporation : first, 
that if it were possible for them to steer clear of me, 



1 36 THE TIMES OF THE MA THERS. 

they would do so ; secondly, that if it were possible 
for them to act foolishly, they will do so. The per- 
petual envy with which my essays to serve the King- 
dom of God are treated among them, and the dread 
that Satan has of my beating up his quarters at the 
college, led me into the former sentiment ; the mar- 
vellous indiscretion with which the affairs of the 
college are managed led me into the latter." 

The year that Governor Winthrop died was the 
same in which King Charles the First was beheaded, 
and that event had an important bearing upon the 
interests of Boston. It was also the year in which 
Parliament passed an act for the promotion of the 
gospel in New England, which led to the formation 
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
among the Indians, the learned experimental phi- 
losopher, Robert Boyle, being appointed the first 
president, by King Charles the Second, after his 
restoration, in 1662. This society was useful in sup- 
plying funds for the encouragement of the "Apostle " 
Eliot, in the labors that he had already begun, 
though it had been anticipated by the general court 
of the Massachusetts colony two years before Win- 
throp died. 

It is said that at about this time the " scrupulos- 
ity " of the good people of Boston was at its height, 
and in proof of it Hutchinson remarks that Governor 
Endicott, one of the most rigid of the magistrates, 
joined in an association pledged to use its influence 
against the wearing of long hair, as " a thing uncivil 
and unmanly; fit only for Russians and barbarous 
Indians." It was established as ffood form not to 



TALKING IN MEETING. 1 37 

permit the hair to grow below the ears, though gov- 
ernor Hutchinson wonders why some good soul did 
not retort the text in Leviticus, " Ye shall not round 
the corners of your heads." There had been much 
legislation and discussion regarding matters of this 
kind from the beginning of the settlement. As early 
as the year after his arrival in Boston, Mr. Cotton 
was moved to preach at Salem on the subject of 
veils ; the court had passed a law against tobacco,* 
the use of which Mr. Winthrop had given up before 
coming to America ; and there were laws concerning 
the wearing of gold and silver laces, girdles and hat- 
bands, embroidered caps, and too great sleeves ; 
concerning all of which, the citizens of the little 
hamlet in the wilderness had been guilty. It was 
permitted to those who had such vanities to wear 
them out, but not to have new ones made. There 
had previously been a regulation mulcting smokers 
in the sum of one penny sterling for every time of 
taking tobacco in any place, but apparently it did 
not suffice. In 1635 a law was passed fining persons 
twelve pence for falling into " private conference " 
in public meetings — that is, for talking in meet- 
ing, — and the court was constantly giving its atten- 
tion to small matters of this sort. 

The Agawam Cobbler thought to influence his 
countrywomen by satire ; and though he asserted 

* The law reads : " It is ordered that no person shall take tobacco 
publicly, under penalty of two shillings and sixpence, nor privately, 
in his own house or in the house of another, before strangers, and 
that two or more shall not take it together anywhere, under the 
aforesaid penalty for each offence." 



138 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

that he was " neither nigard nor cinick to the true 
bravery of the true gentry," he declared that " it is 
a more common than convenient saying that nine 
taylors make a man : it were well if nineteen could 
make a woman to her mind." " Methinks it would 
break the hearts of Englishmen to see so many 
goodly English women imprisoned in French cages, 
peering out of their hood-holes for some men of 
mercy to help them with a little wit, and nobody 
relieves them. We have about five or six of them 
in our colony : if I see any of them accidentally I 
cannot cleanse my fancy of them for a month after, 
. . . It is a most unworthy thing for men that have 
bones in them to spend their lives in making fiddle- 
cases for futulous women's fancies ; which are the 
very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of perquis- 
quillian toys. . . . When I hear a nugiperous gen- 
tledame inquire what dress the queen is in this week, 
— what the nudiustertian fashion of the court, — with 
cggG to be in it in all haste ; I look at her as the 
very gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a 
cipher, the epitome of nothing, fitter to be kickt, if 
she were of a kickable substance, than either hon- 
ored or humored." It is doubtful if the " nugiper- 
ous gentledames" knew enough Latin to understand 
the " loose-tongued liberty " with which they were 
addressed by this ferocious crusader. 

During the time of Cromwell the people of Bos- 
ton kept on their independent way with less diffi- 
culty than before ; they increased their trade and 
improved their town ; they went so far in the way 
of independence that in 1652 they began to coin the 



PROTESTATIONS OF LOYALTY. I 39 

bullion that flowed to them from the West Indies 
and elsewhere, putting on the money, not the arms 
of the king or the name of the mother-country, but 
simply the words " New England " and " Massachu- 
setts." Parliament was too much occupied to inter- 
fere, and it seems that Charles, the Second, after his 
restoration, allowed the process to continue. The 
town was alarmed by news of the war between Eng- 
land and Holland, which, it was supposed, would 
make complications with the New Netherlands, and 
by a rising of the Narragansett Indians in Connecti- 
cut, which came about in consequence of the relations 
between the Indians and the Dutch. Boston did not 
approve of war in this instance, and it was not pros- 
ecuted. 

At the Restoration, the struggle over the charter 
was renewed. Goffe and Whalley, two of the judges 
who had condemned Charles the First, fled to Amer- 
ica at that time, and were received in Boston, as might 
have been expected, with cordiality. The king was 
not " proclaimed," and no " address " was sent to him. 
It was not long before the colonists were called upon 
to meet more charges made against them by Quakers 
and others, and then an address was sent to Charles 
the Second, abounding in protestations of loyalty. 
To this the king replied in language that seemed 
kindly, but was not very satisfactory to the colo- 
nists. He demanded, at last, that the freedom of con- 
science, which they emphasized, should be extended 
to those who used the Book of Common Prayer ; 
that the elective franchise should be given to others 
than merely the members of the orthodox churches ; 



I40 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

and that the fugitive judges should be arrested and 
returned. The judges probably obtained early in- 
formation of the king's demands, and when Gov- 
ernor Endicott sent of^cers for them they were not 
to be found. 

At about the same time the busy industry that 
commerce had developed was interfered with by an 
Act of Navigation, under the terms of which every 
thing imported into Boston, except in English ships 
manned by English sailors, was liable to forfeiture. 
The court now thought it necessary to make a dec- 
laration of rights under the charter, and at a meet- 
ing held in Boston, June lo, 1661, it asserted that 
the governor and company formed a body politic, 
competent to make freemen, to set up all sorts of 
of^cers, to make laws, and to repel invaders, but in 
all things to be loyal to the king. The king was 
proclaimed in Boston in the following August, fif- 
teen months after his accession, by order of this 
" loyal " court. No wonder the tardy colonists 
never stood well with his Majesty King Charles the 
Second. Their real feelings were too apparent. 
They sent two agents to London in 1662, to look 
out for the colonial interests, who brought back a 
letter from the king, which the court proceeded to 
consider at its meeting August 3, 1664, after a delay 
of two years. Meantime there had been rumors that 
men-of-war w^ere coming from England with troops 
and commissioners charged with the duty of deter- 
mining all matters of complaint. Eleven days be- 
fore the August meeting the commissioners had ac- 
tually arrived. There had been a solemn fast in 



FERVENT PLEAS. I4I 

anticipation of this event, and " in view of the many 
distractions and troubles under which the country" 
labored ; the train-bands had been put in order and 
the Castle prepared to give speedy notice of the ex- 
pected arrivals. The commissioners came, but were 
not able to remain long enough to attend the Au- 
gust meeting. They went to New Amsterdam, with 
which also they had business. 

After two months of solemn discussion (and we 
may be sure that the affair was looked upon as a 
serious one), a letter was ready for the " Dread Sov- 
eraigne." In it the poor subjects "prostrated" 
themselves before the royal feet, and with some 
eloquence in a now antiquated style, begged favor. 
They made fervent pleas for themselves, stiffly 
asserted the rights that they conceived were theirs 
by the sacred charter, pathetically presented the 
story of the burdens of a new plantation, referred to 
" the great labors, hazards, costs, and dififlculties " of 
" wrestling with the wants of a wilderness," and to 
the royal promise of encouragement and protection 
conveyed in the king's letter of February, 1660; 
and asserted that they were grievously afflicted by 
the plan of sending to them rulers that they had no 
hand in choosing ; who were to proceed, not by 
established law, but by their own discretions ; that 
it pained them to see His Majesty put to great ex- 
pense in a business that would never reimburse one- 
half the amount that was to be laid out on it. They 
reiterate the assertion that they did not come to 
the wilderness to seek great things for themselves; 
that they meddled not with any business but their 



142 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

own ; that they were carefully studious of all due 
subjection to His Majesty, not only for wrath, but 
for conscience sake ; and in conclusion they exclaim, 
" Royal Sir ; it is in your power to say of your poor 
people of New England, they shall not die . . . Let 
our government live, let our patent live, our magis- 
trates live, our laws and liberties live, our religious 
enjoyments live, so shall we all yet have further 
cause to say from our hearts, let the king live for- 
ever ! . . . And the blessing of them that were 
ready to perish shall come upon your majesty, . . . 
and we and ours shall have lasting cause to rejoice 
that we have been numbered among your majesties 
most humble servants and suppliants." 

The king's commissioners met in Boston in the 
following February, and attempted to sit as a court 
to hear complaints against the governor and com- 
pany; but the general court disapproved of such 
action, as inconsistent with the duty to God and the 
king which every colonist owed, and by sound of 
trumpet prohibited all persons from sustaining the 
commissioners, who were, therefore, unable to accom- 
plish any thing, and gave up the contest, telling the 
Boston people that they would refer the matter to 
His Majesty, who, they expressively added, " is of 
power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all 
his dominions." The king wrote, in reply to the 
letter of the court of October, that he would recall 
the commissioners, since it was evident that the 
colonists thought that the charter had been violated 
by their appointment ; but he directed that four or 
five persons should be sent to him that he might 



NEW ENGLAND RICH AND INDEPENDENT. I43 

hear what was to be said on that side. The court 
acknowledged this demand, but declined to send 
any one to the king, saying that all had been said 
that there was to say, and that they preferred to 
commit themselves to God. Boston and other com- 
mercial towns opposed this cavalier action, and the 
commissioners also protested, but in vain. The 
colonists endeavored to appease the king, however, 
by sending him a present of some shiploads of masts 
and other timber for the royal navy. The contest 
was for a time closed, and during the following ten 
years there were few communications between the 
parties at odds. 

John Evelyn tells us in his Diary that when the 
Board of Trade* met to organize and take the official 
oaths, May 26, 1671, and "to counsel his majesty to 
the best of our abilities for the well-governing of his 
foreign plantations," what was " most insisted on 
was to know the condition of New England." To 
the board the people of that colony appeared " to be 
very independent as to their regard to Old England 
or his majesty, rich and strong as they now were," 
and there was "great debate" as to how such 
colonists should be addressed, " for the condition of 
that colony w^as such that they were able to contest 
with all other plantations about them, and there was 

* This important body comprised the Duke of Buckingham, the 
Earl of Sandwich, Sir George Carteret, and others. Its sessions 
were held in the house of the Earl of Bristol, in Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, which had been taken for the purpose. There were seven 
rooms on a floor, with long gallery, gardens, etc., and the meeting- 
room was appropriately furnished with atlases, maps, charts, globes, 
etc. 



144 THE TIMES OF THE MATHERS. 

fear of their breaking from all dependence " on 
England. Some members were in favor of sending 
"a menacing letter, which those who better under- 
stood the peevish and touchy humor of that colony 
were utterly against." On the sixth of June there 
was another debate on the same subject, and it was 
decided that any action towards New England 
should be " civil and conciliating," because it was 
understood that the people were certainly " almost 
upon the very brink of renouncing any dependence 
on the crown." One would almost think that this 
was written in 1771, instead of 167 1. It shows that 
however the Boston people might protest their 
loyalty, their acts appeared to observers at a distance 
to be those of men bound to maintain their inde- 
pendency, — to govern themselves under their char- 
ter, it is true, but to stretch its provisions to the 
utmost in their own favor. 

The king did not acknowledge the gift of masts 
until 1669, though his clerk of the navy, the garru- 
lous Samuel Pepys, wrote in his private diary that it 
was " a blessing mighty unexpected," without which 
the efforts of the navy might have failed the follow- 
ing year, and he praised God " for thus much good 
fortune." Eight years later, the same " poor sub- 
jects" in the "remote corner of the earth," sent his 
majesty " ten barrels of cranberries, two hogsheads 
of special good samp, and three thousand codfish," 
with their compliments. 



XII. 



THE CHARTER IS LOST. 



Boston was happily situated in many respects, 
but in one particular it was especially fortunate. Its 
remoteness from the great body of Indians gave it 
immunity from those attacks which devastated many 
towns in Connecticut and others in Massachusetts, 
as well as those in the more northerly eastern region. 
We read of intercourse between the immigrants and 
the natives from time to time : how they came to 
town to complain of ill-treatment on the part of 
whites who were supposed to be under Massachu- 
setts jurisdiction ; how they asked protection tribe 
from tribe ; how they at one time took advantage of 
the Sunday gathering to ^break into an unprotected 
dwelling ; how they were convicted of assaulting 
Englishmen, and were set in the bilboes for their 
pains; and how the Pequod tribe had been fought 
to the fearful death ; but these were as nothing to 
the terrible experiences that were suffered at Haver- 
hill, at Dover, at Deerfield. 

There was an Indian called Philip, who made his 
squalid home at Mount Hope or Montaup, and 
seemed to have little respect for the whites, and to 
care nothing whether he offended or pleased them. 

145 



146 THE CHARTER IS LOST. 

Trouble was to come from him, not because Boston 
had any grievance with him, but because Plymouth 
complained of his actions, and by the articles of 
confederation the Massachusetts colony was obliged 
to give aid to her sister. Philip was accused of 
hatching a general conspiracy among the Indians 
for the slaughter of all the Europeans around. 

Massachusetts was at peace, her men were busy 
at their trades, her matrons were caring for their 
families, her children were going to the schools and 
the college, her dwellings were growing in elegance 
and comfort, her fishermen were bringing in the 
spoil of the mackerel and the whale ; those of the 
inhabitants who stood for men of letters were pro- 
ducing works treating serious subjects that were 
thought worthy of notice in the mother-country, and 
there was promise of still greater progress in all that 
refines and exalts a people. Quaker and Baptist no 
longer gave solicitude, and no menace came from 
England. Under such peaceful circumstances Bos- 
ton, and all New England, *were terrified by the 
most threatening Indian disturbance that had yet 
been known. 

In June, 1675, there came news to Plymouth that 
Philip and his men were constantly in arms ; that 
they had sent their wives to places of safety ; that 
many strange Indians flocked to them ; that the. 
young Indians were " earnest for a war " ; and, 
finally, that the town of Swanzey, the nearest to the 
Indian country, had been attacked ; that two houses 
had been burned, a dozen more rifled, and several 
whites killed, upon whose bodies the savages had 



A FRIGHTFUL INDIAN WAH. 1 47 

" exercised more than brutish barbarities, beheading, 
dismembering, and manghng them, and exposing 
them in a most inhuman manner." The frightful 
news was sent post to Boston, and there were 
hurried arrangements, not for defence only, but 
for the pursuit, capture, and destruction of the 
Indians. 

John Leverett was governor at the time. He was 
an old soldier of Cromwell's wars, and knew the 
demands of the moment. The council was immedi- 
ately called together, and Captain Edward Hutchin- 
son was directed to proceed to the Narragansetts 
and order them to break off correspondence with 
Philip, and to give the English all possible informa- 
tion of his designs. Leverett concentrated what 
forces he could at Boston and sent messengers to 
Philip. They found war actually begun, and re- 
turned with the news, spreading the alarm as they 
went. On their arrival drums were beat up for 
volunteers, and in the short space of three hours one 
hundred and ten men were ready to set out. It 
seems that a Dutchman under sentence of death for 
piracy, with others in like condition, was allowed 
to volunteer. 

Thus Boston made its hurried preparations, and a 
war which lasted more than a year was begun. It 
was marked by all the proverbial atrocities of Indian 
warfare. Massachusetts had six settlements on the 
Connecticut River, all of which suffered. Northfield, 
Deerfield, and Springfield were burned ; but North- 
ampton, Hadley, and Hatfield, though attacked, 
were not destroyed. An incident that occurred near 



I4S THE CHARTER IS LOST. 

Boston shows the dangers of the times and the spirit 
of the people. On a Sunday in July, when the 
members of the houshold, excepting a maid-servant 
and children, were at meeting, an Indian came to 
the house of John Minot, in Dorchester, about five 
miles from Boston, and tried to gain admission. 
The door was shut, and he attempted a window. 
The maid, with presence of mind, quickly hid the 
children who had been left in her charge under two 
brass kettles, ran upstairs, and fired a musket at the 
intruder. The Indian also fired, but missed his aim, 
upon which the maid shot him in the shoulder, but 
the wound was not severe enough to make him give 
up his attempt. He was actually entering the win- 
dow when the maid threw a shovelful of live coals in 
his face and forced him to retreat in pain, at the 
same time placing a mark upon him by which he 
was identified when he was afterwards found dead in 
the woods. Both the intensity of feeling and the 
quickness of the Boston men to rally when required 
are shown by the fact that, on a day in September, 
when a guard at Mendon, thirty miles away, fired his 
gun in a drunken excess, the alarm spread until it 
reached the town at about ten in the morning, and 
twelve hundred men were under arms in an hour. 
In consequence of the trials of this war there was a 
solemn fast in October. 

While it was summer the savages had the better 
of their enemies, but, as winter came on, their pros- 
pect darkened. In December a company of foot and 
horse marched from Boston and fell upon the enemy 
in the Narragansett country. The Indians were in 



DEATH OF PHILIP. 1 49 

a fort ; snow covered the ground, and there was no 
shelter for the English for miles. 

The fort was stormed, seven hundred fighting In- 
dians were slain, three hundred more were wounded 
and died afterwards, besides large numbers that per- 
ished by fire and cold. The English loss was prob- 
ably but one hundred, and has been estimated at a 
smaller number. There was determination on both 
sides : the natives were fighting for their homes 
against a people that they felt to be superior to 
them, and the whites were convinced that their very 
preservation depended upon striking a heavy blow 
at an insidious and treacherous opponent. It was a 
bloody and frightful bravery. 

During the winter there were other raids by horse 
and foot against the Indians in various directions; 
Philip himself once ventured within twenty-two 
miles of Boston and destroyed much property, and 
elsewhere the colonists were shot down by unseen 
foes, their cattle were killed, and their houses burned. 
The decisive struggle occurred at Great Falls, on the 
Connecticut, in May, 1676, and then the cause of the 
redskins went down apace : their haunts were broken 
up, and Philip was hunted from place to place until 
August, when he was surprised, near Mount Hope, 
and killed by an Indian bullet, fourteen months 
after he had begun the war at that very spot. 

The colonies most distressed were Massachusetts 
and Plymouth, though Connecticut had done its 
share of the fighting, and had suffered the penalties 
of war. Plymouth was almost ruined, but Massa- 
chusetts was able to recover from its great loss. 



150 THE CHARTER IS LOST. 

The towns were drained of men ; six hundred of the 
colonists had perished ; thousands found themselves 
suffering from the losses and sorrows that followed ; 
six hundred dwellings had been burned, some towns 
totally destroyed, and expenses incurred that were 
enormous in comparison with the resources of the 
colonists ; but not a plea was sent to England for 
help. The Americans were " poor and yet proud," 
as Lord Anglesey, " not altogether groundlessly," 
wrote from London. They were not willing to 
place themselves under any obligation to the crown, 
and yet they did not disdain to accept thankfully a 
gift of a thousand pounds contributed " by divers 
Christians in Ireland," to those who were, as it was 
expressed, " impoverished, distressed, and in necessity 
by the late war."* Hutchinson is authority for the 
statement that all the sums bestowed upon the 
colony from abroad were equalled by remittances 
sent thence after the fire in London, and at other 
times, for the relief of sufferers, so that it is evident 
that even in these cases the colonists kept the gen- 
erous accounts balanced. 

The war with Philip caused the court to enact 
more rigid laws against Indians, and it was ordered 
" that a guard be set against the entrance of the 
town of Boston [on the Neck], and that no Indian 
be suffered to enter upon any pretext, and without 
a guard and two musketeers, and not to lodge in 

* This charitable gift was returned to Ireland by Boston, in 1847, 
on the occasion of the potato famine of that and the previous years. 
Interesting details regarding the facts mentioned are to be found in 
a contribution to the N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, by Dr. Charles 
Deane, vol. ii., pages 245, 398. 



ASSERTING INDEPENDENCE. 151 

town." Indians even approaching by land or water 
were liable to arrest. Most of those who had previ- 
ously given themselves up to the government were 
sent to Deer Island, where they remained during the 
winter, enduring some suffering. Many of the 
women and children who had been made prisoners 
were sold into West Indian slavery, in spite of 
pathetic protests from their friend, John Eliot, who 
wrote, in a formal letter to the council, that such 
treatment was worse than death, and contrary to the 
teachings of the Saviour. He said : " To sell souls 
for money seems to me a dangerous merchandize." 
Ever after this terrible war there was a horror con- 
nected with the mention of an Indian. 

In writing to Governor Leverett, Lord Anglesey 
took occasion to chide him, and " the whole people 
of New England," for acting as if they were inde- 
pendent of the crown, and needed not the protection 
of the king, and he assured them that His Majesty 
had a tender and compassionate heart for all his 
subjects who were industrious and orderly. Never- 
theless, whatever King Charles may have been 
desirous of doing for his subjects who were " indus- 
trious and orderly," he was not unwilling to take 
advantage of the distress occasioned by this war to 
make another move towards the abrogation of their 
charter. At the very height of the Indian troubles 
he sent a letter to the Massachusetts court by the 
hands of Edward Randolph, " the evil genius of 
New England," as he has been called, authorizing 
him to institute inquiries which struck at the very 
foundations of the government. 



154 THE CHARTER IS LOST. 

fore this time. Dudley saw that the charter was 
doomed, and wished to gain for himself favor from 
the king. The colonists at last discovered his true 
character, and he was dropped from the list of 
magistrates in May, 1684. 

The governor and a majority of the assistants, in- 
fluenced by Dudley, had by this time become hope- 
less, and voted an address to the king, in which 
they declared that they laid themselves at his ma- 
jesty's feet and would not contend ; but from this 
the deputies dissented, and the freemen of Boston, 
under the lead of Increase Mather, at a meeting 
lawfully warned for the purpose of considering the 
matter, voted unanimously that they would not re- 
sign their charter and privileges and make submis- 
sion to His Majesty. Mather said : " I verily believe 
that we shall sin against the God of heaven if we 
vote an affirmative. The Scripture teacheth us 
otherwise : ' That which the Lord our God hath 
given us, shall we not possess it ? ' " It was not the 
first time that Mather had raised his powerful voice 
in similar strains. Three years previously he had 
preached a sermon ostensibly in reference to comets 
and earthquakes, but really having political lessons, 
in which Scripture was aptly quoted to prove that 
God would interfere to protect his N*ew England 
children. 

The records of this notable town-meeting are not 
preserved, but we have a paper, apparently from the 
hand of Increase Mather, in which the subject be- 
fore it is discussed with as much regularity as the 
charges of Randolph were made in his application 



POPISH COUNSELS AT COURT. 1 55 

for the quo warranto. It argues that the sacred 
document ought not to be given up, because it 
would be " destructive to the interests of rehgion " ; 
nothing would be gained by it (those corporations 
that had already submitted to the pleasure of the 
court had gained nothing)* ; it would be a departure 
from the ancient principles and policy of the colon}/, 
for in 1638, though under a quo zvarranto, which had 
been issued in 1635, judgment had been given 
against the charter, the fathers did not and durst 
not make submission, and in 1664 they would not 
have commissioners over them ; there was fear of 
" popish counsels " at court ; it would be contrary 
to the advice of the ministers, given only three years 
before, after " a solemn day of prayer " ; and it 
ought not to be done in any event without the con- 
sent of the whole body of the freemen and church- 
members. Then, there is the sixth commandment, 
for commonwealth-killing is as bad as man-killing ; 
suicide is forbidden. — Judges, xi., 24, 27 ; I Kings, 
xxi., 3, etc. 

This was no sudden impulse on the part of the 
deputies, nor of the town of Boston ; the deputies 
debated the question two weeks, and then voted 
that they would not consent, but adhered to their 
former view. It made no difference, however, what 
the town of Boston thought, what the whole body 
of freemen and church-members thought ; every thing 
had been arranged by Randolph and the king, and 

* The allusion is to the quo warranto against the city of London, 
over which there had been great discussion not long before this 
(June 12, 1683). 



156 ■ THE CHARTER IS LOST. 

the people of England interested in trade stood be- 
hind them. Randolph, who now returned to Lon- 
don, took the votes to his royal master, and confi- 
dently looked for news that Dudley had prevailed 
upon the deputies to change their minds ; but he 
was disappointed. Dudley wrote, instead, that all 
who tried to lead the deputies to cast themselves 
humbly at the feet of the king were regarded as 
enemies to public peace and liberty. Worse than 
all, it was reported that the governor and magis- 
trates at Boston had been very busy repairing forti- 
fications. 

The general court again addressed the king, reit- 
erating the appeal, as from his " poor subjects," re- 
minding him that they were the children of those 
who, under security of a charter granted them by 
his father, had left "all that was dear to them," etc., 
etc., as in former addresses. Among themselves they 
avowed their intention to " spin out the case to the 
uttermost " ; but they were staggered in September, 
1684, by the intelligence that a decree had been en- 
tered in the court of chancery in June, vacating the 
charter. A session of the general court was held, 
and the information presented ; but nothing more 
was done. Five weeks later another session was 
held, and a last plea prepared to be sent to the king- 
It sufficed nothing ; the sons had lost what the fa- 
thers had gained, and it seemed as though the hearty 
struggles of half a century had availed nothing. 
King Charles, in his gracious love for the New Eng- 
land colonists, selected as their new governor the 
notoriously bloody Col. Piercy Kirkc of the Second 



BLOODY COLONEL KIRKE. I 57 

Foot, whose subsequent atrocities have made him 
infamous. The colony awaited his coming with 
dread.* Meantime His Majesty was called to ac- 
count to a higher power for his share in the transac- 
tion of the past years. The people of Massachu- 
setts still treasured the charter ; its parchment and 
its seals were intact, and the sign-manual of the 
minister of King Charles the First was as distinct as 
ever ; but possession did not give validity. It was 
dead sheepskin, and dead wax, and conveyed no 
rights to its holders. 

* This was before the Bloody Assize, when Jeffries condemned 
more than three hundred at once to the gallows ; and when Kirke 
and his officers sat carousing at the White Hart at Taunton, order- 
ing a prisoner hanged for their merriment at every toast, causing 
drums to give music for the drunken crew the meanwhile. It was 
at the time when the captured rebels were sold to be sent to Jamaica 
as slaves, by request of the queen and her maids of honor, to furnish 
them money to bedeck their bodies. We cannot imagine the terrible 
forebodings of the colonists. 




XIII. 



AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 



To understand the feelings of the Bostonians at 
this juncture, it must be remembered that the death 
of Charles the Second, just at the time when the 
charter was lost, placed on the throne of England a 
sovereign from whom they could expect only worse 
treatment, for James the Second was looked upon 
as surely a papist, and that the colony should have 
fallen into the hands of such an one was of all things 
the most to be dreaded. Not only this, but the 
events that occurred in the rebellion of Monmouth 
were calculated to throw the colonists into a state 
of consternation. They expected 'that Col. Kirke 
would be their governor ; sent over with absolute 
authority, responsible to the king only ; and as the 
stories of his doings after the battle of Sedgcmoor 
came to them, they doubtless all shuddered with Secre- 
tary Rawson as he said : " Our condition is a\vful ! " 
Accustomed to the atrocities of the savages, the 
Americans could appreciate keenly the situation that 
they would find themselves in if their ruler were one 
trained in African warfare, for Kirke had been gov- 
ernor of Tangiers. Increase Mather said of him : 
" That cruel, and horrid, and hideous tiger, whose 

158 



ANTICIPATED HORRORS. I 59 

barbarous cruelties have rendered him famous to all 
succeeding ages, was coming over with a regiment of 
myrmidons, in quality of governor." It matters not 
that the character of this threatened governor was 
blackened by report far beyond truth ; we are con- 
cerned only to remind ourselves of the consternation 
into which the people of Boston were thrown by the 
news that Kirke had been appointed by one king and 
confirmed by his successor. It presented to them 
scenes which cannot be described, — real, as they then 
appeared in the correspondence with their agent and 
others in the mother-country ; pictures of a coarse 
and brutal soldiery, led by an equally coarse and 
brutal captain, quartered upon the community, and 
making themselves free with all that was held sa- 
cred. It was a picture of pandemonium, as if the 
" promiscuous crew " described by the Puritan poet 
were to be turned loose upon the land that the Lord 
had reserved for better things. 

The suffering in anticipation must have been in- 
tense throughout New England ; but it was not 
destined to be real, for James found that the 
services of Kirke were more needed at home than 
abroad, and he was never sent to America. In his 
place the king chose Joseph Dudley, of whom Ran- 
dolph said, " no man better understands the con- 
stitution of your country and hath more loyalty and 
respect to his majesty's affairs." The old form of 
government had been continued after the abrogation 
of the charter simply because there was nothing else 
to be done, and the court was too much occupied 
after the death of Kine Charles to give attention to 



l6o AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 

any thing so remote as the colonies, especially when 
the rebellion called for prompt action. It was not 
until the middle of May, 1686, that a commission 
reached Boston under which Mr. Dudley was 
elevated to the office of president, a position in 
which he thought that no American was his equal. 
Certainly his domain was sufficiently extensive, for 
his commission made him supreme over the colony 
of the Massachusetts Bay, Maine, New Hampshire, 
and the Narragansett Country, and he was also vice- 
admiral of the seas around New England. A 
deputy-president and sixteen councillors were to 
exercise authority with him, but there was no plan 
for a house of representatives of the people. 

Randolph was already registrar of the same region, 
and he and Dudley now laid their commissions be- 
fore the general court, addressing them, however, as 
"some of the principal gentlemen and chief inhabi- 
tants of the several towns of the Massachusetts," in 
order that their official capacity might not be 
acknowledged. The court gave up under protest, 
saying that the rule for the administration of justice 
seemed indeterminate and too arbitrary, and that 
they were to be abridged of their liberties as 
Englishmen, which, they significantly added, may 
not " be safe for you or for us." The court ad- 
journed until a day in the autumn, throwing upon 
the new officers all responsibility for the govern- 
ment of the people, and hoping, as Randolph said, 
that by some unhappy accident in England, or by 
raising dissensions among the new rulers, they might 
succeed in dissolving' the constitution and thus re- 



THE EAST END OF THE TOWN-HOUSE. l6l 

assume the direction of affairs themselves. The book 
of the records of the Massachusetts colony was now 
closed. 

A week or so later the new government, which 
had been duly proclaimed, was convened ; twenty- 
one pounds' worth of wine was drunk in its honor, 
and theie was some affectation of general festivity; 
but it was factitious, the people were simply acqui- 
escent. Differences soon arose between Dudley 
and Randolph. Dudley was not sufiliciently favor- 
able to the Church of England. He wrote a letter 
to Increase Mather the very day that he made his 
demand upon the general court, in which he said 
that he was exceedingly anxious for the prosperity 
of his " dear mother at Cambridge," and that he de- 
sired to act in civil matters in such a way as to 
receive the approval of one to whom he had so long 
looked for ghostly counsel. Mather was at the time 
president of Harvard College, and also the minister 
of greatest influence in the colony, and doubtless 
Dudley was sincere in desiring to retain his favor. 
Dudley was also not sufficiently active in encoura- 
ging the Episcopalians to suit Randolph ; and when 
the minister, Mr. Robert Radcliffe, whom Randolph 
thought " a sober man," petitioned for the privilege 
of using one of the three meeting-houses for his ser- 
vice, neither of them was allowed him, but he was 
"granted the east end of the Town-House, where 
the deputies use to meet, until those who desire his 
ministry shall provide a fitter place." After this 
Randolph discovered that Dudley was " a man of 
base, servile, and anti-monarchical principles." He 



1 62 AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 

complained that his own hfe Avas made very uneasy, 
that " Independent ministers flourish and expect to 
be advised with in pubHc aiTairs " ; and that but one 
member of the government besides himself was a 
member of the Established Church. 

On the first Sunday after the inauguration of the 
royal government, Mr. Radcliffe worshipped accord- 
ing to the rites of the Church of England in the 
Town-House. Sewall records in his diary that as he 
sat at home he listened to the reading " in course," 
by his son of two passages " exceedingly suited to 
the clay." They were the twenty-sixth chapter of 
Isaiah, and the one hundred and forty-first Psalm. 
We can imagine the twain sitting that day in the 
house near the water, on the present Washington 
Street, near Summer, which had been occupied by 
his father-in-law, John Hull, the first man to coin 
money for the colonists.* There sat Samuel Sewall 
the typical Puritan ; the man who would not sell a 
slice of his grounds to the Episcopalians for a church 
lot ; the rich, sagacious, garrulous scholar, listening 
to the words as they fell from the lips of his son, and 
making his inward comments. Both noticed the in- 
teresting fact that the passages they read came " in 
course." Let us listen : 

" Lord, I cry unto thee : make haste unto me. . . . 

* John Hull owned a house near Pemberton Square (which had 
been occupied by John Cotton and Harry Vane), described as being 
"considerably distant from other buildings and very bleak," but 
Sewall still occupied the old home. The investigations of the late 
Estes Howe, communicated to the Massachusetts Historical Society 
in November, 1884, in a letter to Charles Deane, LL.D., settled the 
matter. 



RADCLIFFE'S MOVABLE PULPIT. 1 63 

Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I 
withal escape. . . . When their judges are over- 
thrown in stony places, they shall hear my words : for 
they are sweet. . . . Our bones are scattered at 
the grave's mouth. . . . Trust ye in the Lord 
forever. . . . For he bringeth down them that dwell on 
high. . . . Lord, wilt thou ordain peace for us. 
. . . Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast 
increased the nation : thou art glorified : thou hadst 
removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Lord 
in trouble have they visited thee ; they poured out 
a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. . . . 
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and 
shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself as it were for a 
little moment, until the indignation be overpast." 

The meeting that Mr, Radcliffe was to have held 
was deferred until the sixth of June, " at which time 
the pulpit is provided." " The pulpit is movable," 
Mr. Sewall says, " carried up and down stairs, as oc- 
casion serves ; it seems many crowded thither, and 
the ministers preached forenoon and afternoon " ; 
but it mattered not, the words of David and of 
Isaiah were comforting to the Puritan, who looked 
upon the minister of the Established Church as one 
whose insidious influence would upturn all that was 
sacred, and fasten upon the colonists the burden of 
bishops and every hateful thing that they had left 
their mother-country to free themselves from. To 
Randolph, acting under directions of his royal mas- 
ter, the establishment of Episcopal services in Bos- 
ton is due. He counted that there were four hun- 
dred attendants upon the services by the following 



164 AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 

October, though " some were tradesmen and others 
of mechanical professions, and threatened by the 
congregational men to be arrested by their creditors 
or to be turned out of their work if they come to 
our church." Few persons in Boston had ever at- 
tended such a service, and there was much curiosity 
in regard to it. 

Dudley did not long enjoy his greatness, for in 
December a new governor, Sir Edmund Andros, ar- 
rived in a fifty-gun ship the Kingfisher. He reached 
Nantasket on the nineteenth, but it was Sunday, 
and he did not land until the next day. Mr. Sewall 
was engaged in reading the Song of Habakkuk, at 
the time of the Sunday arrival, when he heard a 
gun, and immediately thought of the new governor; 
" but none of the family speaking of it," he writes, 
" I held my peace." He kept on reading the mag- 
nificent words before him, and comforting his soul 
in the midst of the tribulations of the church and 
state. 

*' O Lord, I have heard the report of thee, and am 
afraid. ... In wrath remember mercy. 
The eternal mountains were scattered, the everlast- 
ing hills did bow. . . . Thou didst march through 
the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the nations in 
anger. . . . Thou woundest the head out of the 
house of the wicked. . . . Thou didst pierce with 
his own staves the head of his warriors : they came as a 
whirlwind to scatter me ; their rejoicing was as to de- 
vour the poor secretly. ... I heard and my belly 
trembled, my lips quivered at the voice. . . . 
" Though the fig tree shall not blossom, 
Neither shall fruit be in the vines ; 



SEW ALL COMFORTS HIS SOUL. 1 65 

The labor of the olive shall fail; 

And the fields shall yield no meat ; 

The flock shall be cut off from the fold, 

And there shall be no herd in the stalls ; 

Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, 

I will joy in the God of my salvation." 

Monday afternoon Andres came up to Governor 
Leverett's (now Long) wharf, where Dudley and 
others met him, and a procession was formed that 
marched the short distance to the Town-House, 
where the royal commission was read. Standing 
with his hat on, he took the oath of allegiance, and 
showed something of the spirit in which he came, 
by almost immediately speaking to the ministers in 
the library about accommodations as to a meeting- 
house for the Episcopalians, suggesting that one 
house might serve for two assemblies in the same 
day. The ministers did not give him a definite 
reply ; but on Wednesday evening, after having 
taken time to confer with others, Mr. Mather and 
Mr. Samuel Willard, of the South Church, called 
upon the new governor at his lodgings, at Madame 
Taylor's, on Hanover Street, at the corner of Elm 
Street, and told him " with great plainness " that 
they could consent to no such arrangement as he 
proposed. The following day the governor did not 
attend the ** lecture," but on Saturday, which was 
Christmas, and a very fair and pleasant day, he 
walked forenoon and afternoon to the Town-House, 
to hear service. Andros was not able to restrain 
himself long, and when Good- Friday approached he 
determined to find better accommodations than a 



1 66 AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 

corner of the Town-House. He therefore exam- 
ined the three meeting-houses, and demanded the 
use of the South on the Wednesday before. It was 
refused by those who had control over it, but he 
prevailed upon " goodman Needham " to ring the 




THE FIRST king's CHAPEL (l68Sj, SHOWING THE BEACON. 

bell and open the door on Friday morning, and the 
service was held. The governor continued to use 
the building until the first King's Chapel was built 
in 1686. On the first Sunday of this use of the Old 
South, the exercises were very long, and the regular 



AT THE KING'S MERCY. 167 

congregation was obliged to stand in the street, 
probably in a very undevout frame of mind, moving 
to and fro, until after two o'clock; but an effort was 
made to harmonize the hours of the two sets of 
worshippers afterwards. 

According to the principles that controlled the 
governor's action, every privilege and right that had 
been founded upon the charter now fell to the 
ground, for the king of England was possessor of 
the soil of New England by virtue of the discovery 
of the Cabots. Massachusetts had no legislative nor 
executive power ; the struggles of the past had won 
nothing for the Americans ; every thing was at the 
mercy of the sovereign as extended through his 
representative, the governor. The Americans had no 
interest in the Magna Charta ; the governor and coun- 
cil could regulate trade, constitute courts of justice, 
direct the militia, and plan and execute naval opera- 
tions ; the governor was ordered to protect liberty 
of conscience, but that valued little, for he was to 
countenance and encourage the Church of England ; 
he could impose taxes and collect them. The men 
of Boston felt that they were bound hand and foot. 

Andros and Randolph now went to work with a will 
to carry out the principles which have just been out- 
lined ; they called for the public records, and directed 
that all of them should be deposited at Boston ; they 
demanded fees " extraordinary and oppressive" for 
registering wills, deeds, and mortgages ; they caused 
jurors and witnesses to kiss the Bible when taking 
oaths, instead of holding up the right hand, as had 
been the custom (this was thought idolatrous) ; they 



l68 AN AMERICAN DESPOTISM. 

imposed arbitrary taxes, and demanded that new 
patents should be taken out by all landholders, for 
which fees were charged. Such dealings as these 
could not be permitted, and even if the public ofificers 
who undertook to perform them had been popular, 
the people would soon have rebelled. They thought 
that the taxes should not be levied except by their 
representatives, and they hoped that even so arbi- 
trary a prince as King James would permit his re- 
mote subjects to have a house of representatives; 
but he was certain to be arbitrary both at home and 
abroad, and there was no prospect of relief. In 
1688, internal trade was obstructed by a law confin- 
ing the business of every dealer to his own town, 
and prohibiting the sales of goods by peddlers or 
travelling merchants ; heavy taxes also were laid 
upon trade; and finally the spring meetings of the 
towns were estopped. 

Matters had reached such a pass by the spring of 
1688 that the citizens of Boston determined to send 
a representative to plead in person for them with the 
king. They chose the Reverend Increase Mather, 
then at the age of forty-eight, and at the height of 
his reputation. He set sail April 17th, and to 
escape the enmity of Randolph, was obliged to dis- 
guise himself and reach his ship by night. The 
voyage was a short one, and Mather soon had the 
interview that he sought with King James at White- 
hall. The king happened at that time to be desirous 
to cultivate friendship with dissenters, and listened 
with courtesy to the Puritan preacher as he asked 
for checks upon the progress of Episcopacy in New 



A BUZZING AMONG THE PEOPLE. 169 

England ; he also vaguely promised a satisfactory- 
settlement of the matter of titles to lands. Mather 
seems to have had hopes aroused that the king would 
even recall his favorite Andros. While these delus- 
ive negotiations were slowly progressing, on the fifth 
of November William of Orange landed on English 
soil, and William and Mary were soon proclaimed. 
The news did not reach Boston until the following 
April. It arrived just after Andros had returned 
from an expedition to the eastward, where he had 
been with a thousand men to pacify the Indian tribes. 
The political movements in England were well 
known in Boston as they occurred, and it seems that 
an insurrection was imminent before the final news 
arrived there. In the middle of April there was a 
" buzzing among the people, great with expectation " 
of something, apparently they knew not what. 
Andros knew before he returned from Maine that 
William had landed, and he was on the alert to 
guard against the entrance of any fleet into the har- 
bor; but he was not prepared for what actually hap- 
pened. On Thursday, the eighteenth of April, it 
was reported at the South End that there was a 
sudden rising at the North End, and the same report 
was spread at the North End regarding the other 
part of town ; by nine o'clock the drums were beat- 
ing through the streets, an ensign was set up on the 
Beacon, the people were in arms on all sides ; Ran- 
dolph and the chief supporters of the governor were 
arrested and lodged in jail, and a number of the 
principal citizens, including the venerable ex-govern- 
or, Simon Bradstreet, convened at the Town-House. 



170 AN A AI ERIC AN DESPOTISM. 

At noon some of these gentlemen appeared on the 
balcony overlooking King Street (now State), and 
read to the crowd a " Declaration of the Gentlemen, 
Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston, and the Coun- 
try Adjacent," in which they gave a brief account of 
the oppression under which the colony had suffered, 
referred to the "noble undertaking of the Prince of 
Orange," and declared that the persons of the few 
of the grand authors of the public miseries had been 
seized to secure them for such justice as the prince 
and parliament should decree. It closed by advising 
all the neighbors, for whom they had endangered 
themselves, to join in prayer and action for the de- 
fence of the land. A message was sent to Andros, 
in which the signers said : " Ourselves and many 
others, the inhabitants of the town and places adja- 
cent, being surprized with the people's sudden taking 
arms, in the first motion whereof we were wholly 
ignorant, are necessitated to acquaint your excel- 
lency " that, to quiet the people and for your own 
safety, it is best that you give up yourself and the 
government and fortifications to be disposed of 
according to orders that are expected to arrive at 
any moment. Andros was confined for one night in 
Mr. John Usher's house, and was then taken to the 
Fort. Dudley, who was absent on ofificial duty, was 
captured and confined in his house at Roxbury, for 
his safety, as the people euphemistically expressed 
themselves. The following day the Castle was sur- 
rendered, and the Rose frigate struck her topmasts. 

Mr. Bradstreet, and the others who had taken the 
charge of these affairs, formed themselves into " A 



MATHER'S WORK IN ENGLAND. 17I 

Council for the Safety of the People and the Con- 
servation of the Peace," and called a meeting of 
deputies for the ninth of May. As a matter of pru- 
dence the old charter was not resumed, and news 
was anxiously awaited from England. It came in a 
few weeks, and William and Mary were proclaimed 
in Boston with greater ceremony than had ever been 
known on such an occasion before. Andros and 
Dudley were kept in confinement about twenty 
weeks, and then sent to England by royal order in 
February, 1690. 

Meantime Mather was in England, laboring earn- 
estly for the restoration of the charter. He easily 
obtained promises that religious liberty should be 
ensured ; but the restoration of the charter in its 
original terms was vigorously opposed, and there 
was an old-time war of pamphlets. After many 
delays, after an interview with the queen, at which 
she promised her influence in behalf of the Ameri- 
cans, and much correspondence, a new charter was 
signed on the seventh of October, 1691. Sir William 
Phips was nominated governor by the representatives 
of New England, and duly appointed by the king. 
In company with Mather he left London in March, 
and arrived at Boston May 14, 1692. 



--^^Q^fCW^S^ii^^^ 



W'\^ 



XIV. 



THE king's governors BEGIN TO RULE. 



The period that we now close was one of the 
greatest importance, not only in the history of Bos- 
ton and New England, but also in the history of the 
American people. Two generations of emigrants 
had been carefully building up a republican form of 
government on strange shores. They had been edu- 
cating themselves in the independent management 
of public affairs, and they were the most notable 
community of men who up to that time had been 
going through a similar process. At no point 
on the American continent was there a settlement 
of Englishmen who had come to the New World 
for a purpose so explicit and pronounced ; nowhere 
was there one that attracted so much attention 
in England ; nowhere was there one that exerted 
so great an influence upon the future of the whole 
nation that afterwards grew up. Whatever Win- 
throp, and those who came and acted with him 
designed or thought, they laid the foundation of 
independence ; they stood up boldly against any 
interference with their management of affairs ; and 
they handed down to their children the spirit that 
animated their own hearts. The children in the 

172 



CREEPING STATESMEN APPEAR, 1 73 

second generation, though inferior to their fathers,* 
hkewise stood manfully for their heritage, but they 
were overpowered, as we have seen ; still they 
did not intend to allow the English government 
one particle of authority among them that they 
could hinder it from obtaining. We shall see their 
children in turn wrenching from the sovereign every 
thing that he had gained in 1684. 

The era of the biblical commonwealth that the 
fathers of Boston had endeavored to establish, for- 
ever closed with the abrogation of the charter of 
King Charles the First. The change in every thing 
that concerns the management of public affairs was 
complete. The Puritans, in their protest against the 
" corruptions " of the church to which they belonged, 
had laid down a hard and fast line of conduct, and 
all who overstepped it were liable to censure. Every 
member of the Boston community who tried to be 
just to the royalists was looked upon askance by 
those who could see nothing good in men whose 
theological opinions did not agree with their own. 
Thus moderate men were naturally kept in the 
background, and our impressions of the real con- 
dition *f affairs are in many respects necessarily 
somewhat one-sided. We see that many acts in 
themselves indifferent were thought then to be of 
the greatest moment. In his determination not to 

* The officers of government in the second generation were, 
Hutchinson says, some of them Dii iiiinorum gentium ; and one of 
the New England divines is reported to have said that " they were 
in danger of being undone liy creeping statesmen." In the first 
generation they " confined themselves to the principal gentlemen of 
family, estate, understanding, and integrity.' 



174 THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

overstep the rigid line that had been laid down, the 
early Bostonian, like his partisans in England, went 
to extremes of intolerance and bigotry. It is diffi- 
cult to find fault with earnest men who in times of 
excitement and strife err in this way ; but the facts 
regarding them must be known or the men them- 
selves can but partially be understood. 

It strikes us as a little odd that, when (in 1687) 
" brother Wing," of Boston, arranged seats in a con- 
venient room in his private house, and gave permis- 
sion for " a man to shew tricks in it," certain other 
brethren, including Judge Sewall, should have found 
it necessary to go and " deal " with him, showing 
him from " what Dr. Ames saith of callings," that 
this " man's practice was unlawful, and therefore 
Capt. Wing could not lawfully give him accommo- 
dation." There was a solemn time when, as Sewall 
says, they " sung the ninetieth Psalm from the 
twelfth verse " before they " broke up." We can 
hardly appreciate the feelings of men who were so 
severely " exercised " as these were because the 
cross appeared in the national colors ; but it was to 
them the symbol of all that they protested against 
in papacy and in the Church of England. As late 
as 1686, fifty-two years after Endicott cut the cross 
out of his flag at Salem, we find Sewall writing in 
his diary : 

" I was and am in great exercise about the cross to be 
put in the colors, and afraid, if I should have a hand in 
it, whether it may not hinder my entrance into the holy 
land. . . Went and discoursed with Mr. Mather. 

He judged it sin to have it put in, but the Captain not 



SOME BOSTON WAYS. 1 75 

in fault ; but I could hardly understand how the com- 
mand of others could wholly excuse them, at least me, 
who had spoken so much against in April, 1681, and that 
summer and forward, upon occasion of Capt. Walley's 
putting the cross into his colors." 

The change in affairs was shown by the fact that 
though the cross had been kept out of the colors for 
half a century, Sewall says that he " fetcht home the 
silk Elizur Holyoke had of me, to make the cross," 
though he faithfully read Cotton's arguments to the 
contrary. He was obliged sadly to record : " The 
cross much set by in England and here." Degen- 
erate times, he thought them. 

The Bostonians began to keep Sunday on Satur- 
day afternoon at sunset, and it disturbed them very 
much when the royalists, who came with the king's 
governors, did not think it necessary to do the same. 
When the queen's birthday came, on Saturday, in 
1686, it was duly proclaimed through the town by 
drum-beats ; but bonfires were forbidden. In conse- 
quence of the strict regulations in town, the persons 
who wished to have a celebration went to the royal 
ships in the harbor, where flags were raised, and 
guns fired in the evening, and there were many 
huzzas, which were very offensive to the Puritans. 
The following day the Reverend Mr. Willard, of the 
South meeting-house, expressed great grief (in his 
prayer) for the "profanation of the Sabbath." The 
day of the Thursday lecture was not so sacred ; but 
when a man came to Boston towards the end of the 
year 1685 and sought to set up dances, and especially 
mixed dances, and to hold his meetings on lecture- 



1/6 THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

day, boldly proclaiming that he could teach more 
divinity by one play than Mr. Willard could, or than 
would be found in the Old Testament, the Boston 
ministers came to court and complained of him. 
Mr. Moodey said that it was not a time for New 
England to dance ; and Mr. Mather, as one hearer 
reported, struck at the root in an argument against 
mixed dances at any time. Just fifty years later the 
selectmen allowed a school for dancing to be opened ; 
but the application warily set forth that it was a 
school for " reading, writing, cyphering, dancing, 
and the use of the needle " ; which shows that in all 
probability it was thought necessary to cover up the 
iniquitous feature of the proposed school under the 
other harmless subjects that were to be taught. 
Previous applications to open a dancing-school had, 
in fact, been denied. 

On Sunday, which was called the Sabbath Day, 
Bostonians were exceedingly strict in their observ- 
ance. Not only did the law direct that there should 
be no work on that day, but every person was 
obliged to apply himself to the duties of religion 
and piety, public and private ; there was to be no 
unreasonable walking in the streets or the fields, no 
digging of graves or making of cof^ns, no funerals; 
two or three persons who might meet on the street 
by accident were not permitted to stop to talk ; they 
might not walk down to the water-side on hot sum- 
mer days, nor take the air on the Common ; nor 
could they be entertained in taverns except in 
emergencies. Justices were ordered to walk about 
for the purpose of observing the people, to make 



MARRIAGES AND FUNERALS. \yj 

sure that the Sunday laws were obeyed. Marriages 
were, in the early times, solemnized not by the min- 
ister, but by a magistrate, and once, when it was 
proposed to have a wedding in Boston, with a minis- 
ter from Hingham to preach a sermon, the magistrates 
sent word to him to forbear, because they were not 
willing that "the English custom of ministers per- 
forming the solemnity of marriage, which sermons 
at such a time might induce," should come into 
vogue. At a funeral there was at first no service ; 
but the company came together at the tolling of a 
bell, and carried the body solemnly to the grave, 
standing by until it was covered with earth, and 
that not in a consecrated ground, but in some such 
enclosure by the roadside as one sees now fre- 
quently in America. 

It is hardly necessary to say that in many respects 
the habits of the royalists who came with the king's 
governors were quite the reverse of all this, for the 
customs of the emigrants had been modelled for the 
express purpose of avoiding resemblance to those 
they left behind them. The religious customs of the 
Boston churches did not continue in the form at first 
established, however, as we learn from a detailed ac- 
count of them printed by Cotton Mather in 1726. 
The Sunday laws remained strict, and it was said 
that the body of the people were a sober, honest, in- 
dustrious, and well-disposed sort of men, "unexcep- 
tionally loyal to the British sceptre," and " better 
acquainted with religion than in any other country 
on the face of the earth," some whole towns having 
no household that did not maintain religious worship. 



1/8 THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RUIE. 

In conducting funerals a change had come before 
the time of Cotton Mather's death, and we find that 
there were prayers at the house, and sometimes a 
speech at the grave. Weddings were then generally 
conducted by the ministers, though the justices had 
still the legal right to marry people. Before mar- 
riage the parties to be united were " published," and 
at the time of the ceremony a certificate that this 
had been done was presented to the minister, bearing 
the signature of the town-clerk. Sometimes there 
was a " Contraction " a little while before the actual 
wedding, on which occasion the pastor preached a 
sermon ; but that custom fell into desuetude. The 
ceremony began with the presentation of the certifi- 
cate of publishment, after which the minister offered 
a prayer. He then said to the couple : " You are 
now to attend unto a covenant of God : the covenant 
of your marriage before him. Give therefore your 
hands with your hearts unto one another." The 
hands being joined, the minister called upon the man 
to promise to love, honor, and support the woman, 
and upon her to love, honor, and obey the man. 
The consent to these covenants being " in some way 
signified," the minister pronounced the couple " mar- 
ried, according to the laws of God and of this 
province." The wedding-ring was especially omit- 
ted ; and the exercises were concluded by a compre- 
hensive prayer. In due time a return of the marriage 
was made by the minister to the secular authorities. 

The men of the Boston " State-Church," as Cotton 
Mather calls it, protested mightily against imposed 
holy-days, as " the first weapon wherewith the 



HOL V DA VS OPPOSED. 



179 



bishop of Rome played his prizes against other 
churches"; but they thought fit that the governor 
should proclaim a fast-day in the spring season and 
a thanksgiving-day in the autumn, the proclamation 
to be read by the ministers before their congrega- 
tions on a Sunday. Other such days were allowed 




THE FIRST CHURCH, OR "OLD BRICK. 

Built on the site of the present Joy's Building in 1713, and occupied until 1808. Its bell 

sounded the alarm at the time of the " Massacre," March 5, 1770. 



l8o THE KING' S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

to be appointed by the churches also from time to 
time. 

Every Sunday the congregations met twice, the 
intermission between the services being shortened in 
cases where the people lived at considerable distance 
from the meeting-house. When the people were 
assembled, the pastor began the services by reading 
any " bills " which might have been handed him, 
asking for special prayers or praises by any of 
the neighbors. There was no liturgy — pagans had 
a form, but the Saviour did not provide any prayer- 
book, — and the minister was allowed " liberty " to 
make such supplications as seemed to him appro- 
priate in the opening, or " larger prayer." A psalm 
was next sung, it being read line by line by some 
person appointed by the minister, and sung to some 
grave tune, " disorderly clamors " being especially 
inhibited. The way was now clear for the sermon, 
which was a well-studied treatise, based upon a text 
from the Bible, longer or shorter, as the minister 
pleased, and the example of St. Paul was pleaded in 
case the minister felt disposed to continue an hour 
or two, for the Apostle is said to have preached till 
midnight, on one occasion at least. Preaching " with 
notes " was " extremely fashionable " in 1726, Mr. 
Mather says, and he approved it, provided the min- 
ister could still speak with vigor and vivacity, and 
not lose his fervor. The sermon was followed by a 
short prayer and another psalm, and in the afternoon 
there was often a " collection " for church expenses. 
It had formerly been thought improper to read the 
Bible in the meeting-houses without explanations. 



P URITA N WA YS UP TURNED. 1 8 1 

but Mather approves the custom, and says that it 
was practised with profit in many of the churches, a 
fact that shows that there was a gradual change in 
the habits and customs of the people in some 
respects. Private prayers on comiing into church 
were especially disapproved, it being deemed a 
"vanity that a Christian cannot have his devout 
ejaculations without signalizing them unto the 
notice of his neighbors." 

It was a part of Randolph's work to overturn all 
these Puritan customs, and bring the people back to 
their allegiance to the Church of England, as well as 
to loyalty to the king. He began by asking that 
some able ministers should be appointed to perform 
the duties of the church, and that no marriages 
should be lawful except those solemnized by a min- 
ister of the Church of England. He thought that 
there would be some who would contribute largely 
to the maintenance of such, and that something 
might be raised from the estates of those persons 
who should prove treasonable to his majesty. He 
wrote that Boston was the chief place in the seven 
colonies ; that it was managed by " men of weak and 
inconsiderable parts " ; that it had become great by 
reason of the continual concourse of people from all 
parts ; that it drove a large trade, and gave laws to 
all the other colonies, but that it was itself controlled 
by the ministers, without whom the magistrates dare 
not act. To supply a new clergy, and a new form 
of service, would, Mr. Randolph thought, very much 
help in changing all this. He therefore arranged to 
have a supply of prayer-books, tables of marriage. 



1 82 THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

homilies of the church, etc., ready to be sent over 
with Mr. Dudley's commission as president, and in 
the same ship with the Reverend Robert Radcliffe, 
who, as we have seen, was the first Episcopal clergy- 
man to hold service in Boston. Radcliffe had been 
in town but three or four days when he solemnized 
the first marriage in the Town-House, according to 
the service-book, though it was found necessary on 
the occasion to " borrow a ring." 

If the Puritan ministers were objectionable, so 
much more was Harvard College, of which Governor 
Cranfield wrote to Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of 
State : 

"There can no greater evil attend his majesty's affairs 
here than those pernicious and rebellious principles 
which flow from their college at Cambridge, which they 
call their University, from whence all the towns both in 
this and in the other colonies are supplied with factious 
and seditious preachers, who stir up the people to a dis- 
like of his majesty and his government, and the religion 
of the Church of England, terming the liturgy of our 
church a precedent of superstition, picked out of the 
popish dunghill ; so that I am humbly of opinion that 
this country can never be well-settled, or the people 
become good subjects, till their preachers be reformed, 
and that college suppressed, and the several churches 
supplied with learned and orthodox ministers." 

Mr. Randolph ventured to suggest that the funds 
of the society for converting the Indians might well 
be used in setting up good schools and providing 
for the Church minister ; but, as he had already 
given the people offence, he was afraid to attempt 




i83 



184 THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

to seize it lest he should too greatly increase their 
hatred for him. The royalists might well speak as 
they did about Harvard College, for it was at the 
moment presided over by Increase Mather, whom 
Randolph, venting his vain spleen, called " Mather, 
their Mahomet," " the bellows of sedition and 
treason." 

A French refugee, who described Boston in 1687, 
said that at this time very handsome dwellings of 
brick were going up ; that the citizens were served, 
to a considerable extent, by negroes and negresses, 
no family being too poor to have less than one or 
two, and many having five or six, and that savages 
were employed to work in the fields. These negro 
slaves cost from two hundred to four hundred francs, 
and there was no danger that they would run away, 
there being no well-defined roads except those that 
led to the English towns and villages, the citi- 
zens of which Avould immediately return the run- 
aways ; and, if they took to the woods, the savages 
would find them for small compensation. Workmen 
were scarce and wages high, but materials for build- 
ing were cheap. All sorts of cattle were said to 
thrive well, and horses and cows were plenty. The 
woods were full of strawberries, and there were 
chestnuts and hazel-nuts of " wonderful flavor," 
while the grape throve and produced good fruit. 
No account was made of the fish, for the sea and 
the fresh waters were full of them. Beef, mutton, 
and pork were plenty at two or three pence per 
pound, and flour and vegetables were provided in 
ample quantities. The trade was great with the 



THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 1 85 

American islands and with Spain. To the islands 
the ships carried salted beef, pork, codfish, salmon, 
oysters, and mackerel, and brought back sugar, 
molasses, indigo, and sago ; while with Spain dried 
fish was exchanged for oils, wine and brandy, all of 
which, however, was taken by way of London, where 
the duty demanded by the navigation laws was paid. 
Bears and wolves abounded and committed ravages 
among the sheep, and there were many rattlesnakes. 
There was perfect liberty for travellers, though those 
who wished to carry on business were obliged to be 
naturalized in London. As for the inhabitants, this 
Frenchman found good and bad, " as elsewhere," 
though the good preponderated ; and there were all 
kinds of life and manners. Some practised no for- 
mality of marriage, except joining hands and then 
living together. There were not more than twenty 
French families, and the number was daily diminish- 
ing, for they were going to settle elsewhere, probably 
with a view to bettering their condition. 

The first of the king's governors arrived at Boston 
at an inopportune moment. The witchcraft delusion 
broke out at Salem that year, and two weeks after 
Sir William landed a son of John Alden, the Plym- 
outh hero, was accused of witchcraft and taken to 
Salem for examination. It was not at all strange 
that the settlers of New England should have brought 
over to their new home the belief in witches that 
had been fully accepted in Europe for centuries, nor 
that they should have felt it necessary to visit con- 
dign punishment upon them, since they read in the 
Bible, upon which their commonwealth was founded, 



1 86 THE king' S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

the command, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to 
hve." Witches had been executed by the hundred 
in England in the reign of Charles the First, and in 
comparison with that butchery the score of execu- 
tions in Salem in 1692 counts as scarcely nothing, 
while the three poor sufferers who expiated their 
supposed crime in Boston prove that the citizens of 
that town must have been much more merciful and 
rational than their English and other European 
contemporaries. 

The disagreeable literature of this subject is exten- 
sive, and in it we find the names of Increase and 
Cotton Mather frequently repeated. That they 
shared the weakness of their age, in company with 
the wisest and the best, not only in Boston but else- 
where in Christendom, is no indication that they 
were worse than other men, but simply that they 
possessed the failings of human nature. Sir Will- 
iam Phips was also involved in the persecution of 
witches ; he instituted a court for the trial of such 
cases, of which Samuel Sewall was one of the judges,* 
It sat at Salem and Boston, but the governor was 
absent during most of the proceedings, prosecuting 
a campaign against the Indians and building a fort 
at Pemaquid. On his return he found to his dismay 
that his own wife was an object of suspicion, and he 
put a stop at once to the horrid proceedings. The 
fourteenth of January, 1697, was observed as a day 

* We have already read, in Michael Wigglesworth's verses, the 
preconceived notions which the New Englanders entertained regard- 
ing the " hellish fiends " to be found in the howling American wil- 
dernesses. Perhaps some who at this period read his lines regarded 
him as a seer. 




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Bos 




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A PHENOMENAL FAMILY. 1 8/ 

of general fasting and prayer throughout the prov- 
ince, and " the late tragedy was referred to as having 
been " raised up by Satan and his instruments." On 
that day Judge Sewall sent up a " bill " in the Old 
South, in which he confessed that he had offended 
in the matter of the witchcraft condemnations, and 
asked the prayers of the congregation that the divine 
displeasure " might be stayed against the country, 
his family, and himself," and he humbly remained 
standing while the minister read the paper. This 
childlike man annually made his mourning, and hu- 
miliated himself on this account during the remainder 
of his long life. 

The first royal governor was son of a blacksmith, 
who, if Cotton Mather's love for the marvellous did 
not lead him to make an extravagant statement, had 
twenty-five other children. He was born in the 
woods of Maine, near the mouth of" the Kennebec, 
in 1651. His opportunities for education were but 
small, for his mother, who was left a widow when he 
was a child, probably had no easy task to provide 
for her phenomenal family. He naturally engaged 
in building ships at first, but visions of something 
better rose in his mind, and at the age of twenty he 
went to Boston. There he worked at a trade, tried 
to learn to read and write, and married a widow 
much his senior who had some property, which he 
lost for her. At last he found a fortune beneath the 
ocean, for he searched for a Spanish treasure-ship 
that had gone to the bottom half a century before, 
found it, and received as his share of the enterprise 
one hundred thousand dollars, a knighthood, and a 




En^av^n and J'rinlcd hu ^ra. J)»^n^t^ 



A MAP OF BOSTON IN .722. I „,s MAP, KNOWN AS THE "BONNER MAP," WAS MADE BV CAPTAIN JOHN BON 

THE ORICINAL IS PRESERVED AMONC THE ARCHIVES OF TH 



Bofton NE.17 »» Jcldiy CaffJcfmMimntr Ond H^M'Prtu agtu-n/iy TimmJIcu^ 

NER, AND NO OLDER MAP IS KNOWN THAT GIVES THE STREETS AND PROMINENT PLACES. 

E MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



iSS THE KING'S GOVERNORS BEGIN TO RULE. 

goblet valued at five thousand dollars for his wife. 
After serving as high sheriff under Andros, he built 
a " fair brick house," as he described it, in Boston, 
and went to England, where he was ready to be 
selected to be first governor when Mather was 
asked to nominate a fit person. Sir William found it 
difficult to make up for the lack of early advantages ; 
he never could write with ease, and spelling was an 
accomplishment that, in common with many of his 
day, he either despised or thought beyond his ca- 
pacity. He did not become proud, either on account 
of riches or honors, and never forgot that he had 
been a ship-carpenter ; perhaps he wished sometimes 
that he had never been any thing else, especially 
when he was involved in strife with men who under- 
stood far better than he the ins and outs of political 
life. He was a communicant in the church of the 
Mathers, but grace did not entirely overcome nature 
in his case, and when Captain Short, of the Nonesuch 
frigate, crossed his path, he coolly knocked him 
down ; likewise, when the collector of customs 
offended him, he gave him pugilistic arguments. 
Probably the lieutenant-governor, William Stough- 
ton, was in danger from his brawny arm, for there 
was very " warm discourse between them " when 
Phips rescued Captain Dobbins from a sheriff, and 
told the sheriff that if he touched the captain he 
should himself be sent to prison. Sir William's 
.style of argumentation did not suit his Boston sub- 
jects, and they sent complaints to London, which 
caused him to be summoned to England in 1694, 
and thither he went in November. He died early 
the following year. 



AN INDIAN WAR. 1 89 

William Stoughton, who had been chief of the 
judges in the court formed by Phips for the trial of 
witches, performed the duties of governor after the 
departure of Sir William until his successor, Richard 
Coote, Earl of Bellomont, appeared in Boston with 
a commission from his Majesty, May 26, 1699. Eng- 
land and France were at war, and the Indians on 
the American frontier were incited by their French 
neighbors to make bloody raids upon the unpro- 
tected settlements of their enemies. The war con- 
tinued until 1697, in which year the Peace of Ryswick 
was celebrated in Boston with an earnestness Avhich 
only the relief from such distresses as accompany an 
Indian war can give. The struggle had lingered for 
ten years, and many inhabitants of Boston had been 
killed by the savages or lost on the weary marches 
through the woods. The Indians had escaped 
almost with impunity, and it was estimated that 
every one of them that was killed cost the country 
a thousand pounds. For several years a noted chief 
from the Kennebec region named Bomazeen, who 
had incited many of the enormities that his tribe 
had committed, was imprisoned in Boston in a jail 
that Hutchinson confesses was " a very bad one." 
He was exchanged in December, 1698. 




XV. 



THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 



The period during which Boston was governed 
by rulers of the king's appointment was one of per- 
petual strife and friction, and we find several ques- 
tions coming up with constancy, all being connected 
with the paramount topic, the independence of the 
colonists of all interference from England. The 
Americans had opposed the change of government 
for so long a time and with such persistence that 
they could not very easily fall into the ways that the 
king and his agents pointed out for them. 

The colonists protested in the first place against 
the appointment of rulers for them by any authority 
but their own votes, and Boston was always the most 
active in protesting. They naturally fortified them- 
selves with the pertinent words of Jeremiah — - 

" Their nobles shall be of themselves. 
And their governors shall proceed from the midst of 
them." 

This privilege had been exercised from the day 
when John Winthrop was first chosen to office, and 
it did not appear to the colonists that any right to 
change the custom existed, nor that there was any 
need for such a departure from old usage. If the 

190 



SUSPICION AND CONFLICT. I9I 

royal governor were a representative of the king, his 
presence was an impertinence ; and he certainly did 
not represent the Americans. The presence there- 
fore of such an ofBcer gave them a not unnatural 
feeling that they were looked upon as citizens of a 
conquered province. This sensation was deepened 
when Massachusetts lost its separate and distinct 
existence, and became but a fraction of a satrapy 
that stretched from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to 
Delaware Bay ; when her governor was acting under 
a roving commission, — was at one time attending to 
their concerns in their own Town-House, and at 
another holding court at Hartford or New Amster- 
dam ; when the laws that their representatives 
made (sitting with deputies from Plymouth colony 
and appointees of the king) were suspended from 
their full force for three years, in order that his 
Majesty might have that unreasonable length of time 
in which to consider their bearing upon current 
politics. 

Under such conditions there was, of necessity, a 
perpetual jealoiisy and a constant fretting, for the 
governors were sure to be on the look-out for every 
assertion of an independent spirit, and the colonists 
were equally alive to all suspected usurpations of 
authority based upon kingly prerogative. If the 
colony had been begun with an organization of this 
sort there might have been peace between the par- 
ties ; a spirit of loyalty might have been developed, 
such as Virginia showed, for example, in its earlier 
history, but in Massachusetts, where quite different 
principles had obtained at the beginning, nothing 



192 thb: governors and the boston people. 

but conflict was to be anticipated, — and nothing but 
conflict was, as a matter of fact, the rule, from the 
abrogation of the charter until the time when the 
Revolutionary war ensured to the entire body of 
colonists, from Maine to Georgia, complete and 
acknowledged independence of the mother-country. 
When a governor was sent to Boston from Eng- 
land an early question presented itself in regard to 
his support, and the people were always quite cer- 
tain that, as he was not their servant, he should not 
be in their pay. They therefore usually declined to 
vote a regular salary for him, and there was gener- 
ally an unseemly struggle on the subject. If, on the 
other hand, the king undertook to pay his servant, 
the unlogical colonists protested that he had no 
right to keep an ofificer among them in his pay for 
the purpose of acting the spy over their affairs. 
Thus, for example, when Joseph Dudley demanded 
a salary, the court speciously argued that "the cir- 
cumstances of this province as to our ability to sup- 
port the government are at times so different that 
we fear the settling of fixed salaries will be of no 
service to her majesty's interest," and further, that, 
as it was the privilege and right of English subjects 
from time to time to raise and appropriate such 
sums of money as the immediate exigencies may 
require, they hoped that they might continue to 
enjoy the privilege under her most gracious Majesty. 
On the other hand, when Thomas Hutchinson (in 
1772, seventy years later) received a grant from the 
crown for his salary, a committee of the Assembly 
reported that it was " a dangerous innovation, which 



BOSTON'S FOREIGN TRADE. I93 

renders him, as a governor, not dependent on the 
people, as the charter has prescribed, and conse- 
quently not, in that respect, such a governor as the 
people consented to* at the granting thereof" ; and 
the house most solemnly protested that the innova- 
tion was an important change of the constitution, 
which exposed the province to a despotic adminis- 
tration of government. It happened that each of 
the governors thus opposed was a native of the 
colony, but that fact made no difference to the peo- 
ple ; they were just as much on the alert in watching 
the movements of the other governors, and not a 
whit more. 

Most of the New England provinces had no foreign 
commerce, but received all their imported goods 
through traders at Boston, who dealt directly with 
London, and therefore any laws made by parliament 
which affected trade were of the greatest interest to 
Boston, and the merchants there were watchful of 
all legislation in the mother-country on this subject. 
When, therefore. Parliament secured, in 165 1, the 
monopoly of trade with the colonies to the English 
merchant by making active a principle that had been 
established in the reign of Richard the Second, and 
when, in 1660, it avowed its design of sacrificing the 
natural rights of the colonists to home interests, rul- 
ing that " no merchandise shall be imported into 
the plantations but in English vessels, navigated by 
Englishmen," and thus excluded the merchants of 

* Governor Hutchinson was prompt to point out that the charter 
was not of the nature of a treaty between the king and his New 
England subjects, but was a grant of defined privileges of the sover- 
eign's good pleasure. 



194 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

Boston from a profitable trade, it aroused indignant 
opposition. Governor Bellomont said, in 1698, that 
Boston had one hundred and ninety-four ships of 
different sizes engaged in its trade, and ventured to 
assert that there were more good vessels belonging 
of her than all Scotland and Ireland owned. The 
commerce increased so rapidly that the Board of 
Trade reported, in 1717, that the trade of the coun- 
try employed continually no less than three thousand 
four hundred and ninety-three sailors, and four hun- 
dred and ninety-two ships, making twenty-five thou- 
sand four hundred and six tons. These figures 
were derived from the accounts of the naval officers 
of the ports of Boston and Salem. The activity of 
Boston commerce had excited the envy of the Eng- 
lish, and the measures in antagonism to it were 
made by degrees more strict. 

In 1663, a law was enacted prohibiting the col- 
onists from obtaining supplies from Europe except 
by way of England and in English vessels. Later 
still Parliament took away even the liberty of free 
traffic between the colonies themselves ; and, grow- 
ing more grasping as time went on, it was ordered, 
at last, that America should not even manufacture 
those articles which might possibly compete with 
English goods in foreign markets. What England 
would not buy the colonists were entirely at liberty 
to sell to other nations, for otherwise they might 
find it difficult to pay their London bills. By unin- 
tended irony, for the protection of Virginia, the cul- 
tivation of tobacco was prohibited in England and 
Wales, where it would have been difficult to have 
brought a crop to maturity ! 



HATH NOT AN AMERICAN EYES? 195 

If Parliament had paid attention to its Shakes- 
peare, it might have derived a lesson from Shylock. 
Forsooth, England hindered Boston of more than 
Shylock's " half a million " ; she laughed at her 
losses, mocked at her gains, scorned her nation, 
thwarted her bargains, cooled her friends, heated 
her enemies ; " and what 's her reason ? " Boston 
was in far-away America, and was supposed to be 
weak. Boston might well have retorted : " Hath not 
an American eyes? hath not an American hands, 
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed 
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, 
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same 
means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and 
summer, as an Englishman is? If you prick us do 
we not bleed? if you poison us do we not die? and 
if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are 
like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. 
The villainy you teach us we shall execute, and it 
shall go hard but we shall better the instruction ! " 

There were ten governors sent over during the 
period we are now considering. Let us see how they 
managed their uneasy subjects. The time of sus- 
pense during which Stoughton was at the head of 
affairs was pretty well filled up by Indian strife ; but 
there were also fears of attacks upon Boston by some 
fleet from France ; commerce was always in danger 
from buccaneers or pirates ; and there was an epi- 
demic of small-pox, which carried off a thousand 
persons in a twelvemonth, a great proportion in a 
town which counted but about seven thousand in- 
habitants in all. There were some one thousand 
houses in Boston at this time. 



196 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

Cotton Mather bewailed the increase of vice, the 
great number of drinking-houses, and the advent of 
fortune-tellers, "consulted by the sinful inhabitants," 
and warned his fellow-citizens that Port Royal in 
Jamaica was " swallowed up the other day in a 
stupendous earthquake," and that just before that 
catastrophe " the people were violently and scandal- 
ously set upon going to fortune-tellers upon all 
occasions." The town was full of widows, in con- 
sequence of the Indian butcheries; and there were 
multitudes of helpless orphans. Mather estimated 
that one sixth of the communicants in his church 
were widows and that the proportion was not far 
from that through the town. 

Phips was followed by Richard Coote, Earl of 
Bellomont, who was appointed governor of both 
New York and Massachusetts in 1697. He did not 
reach Boston until May, 1699, when he was received 
with the cordiality that a nobleman of fine person, 
elegant manners, conciliatory actions, and respectable 
years might have expected. He took occasion to 
make himself popular with the religious portion of 
Boston citizens by attending the Thursday lecture, 
for which the court usually adjourned, and by pro- 
fessing a high esteem for the ministers, though he 
did not find the precisians the most agreeable 
private company, nor the most entertaining intiinate 
acquaintances, much as he professed to respect them 
in public* 

* In his efforts to achieve popularity Governor Bellomont avoided 
all unnecessary contests with private persons or with the representa- 
tives of the people, and knowing the general detestation in which 



" YOU HAVE LOST A PRECIOUS SERMON." igj 

History records the fact that on returning from 
lecture one day surrounded by a crowd of curious 
citizens, Bellomont passed one Dr. Bulhvant, who 
did not attend the service ; upon which he remarked 
in an audible tone, probably for the benefit of his 
attendants, " Doctor, you have lost a precious ser- 
mon to-day," in reply to which the doctor said in a 
whisper to a companion, " If I could have got as 
much by being there as his lordship will, I should 
have been there too." On another occasion when 
the governor was dining in his own house with a 
number of deputies from the country towns, he said 
to his wife: "We must treat these gentlemen well, 
for they give us our bread." The feeling towards 
the royal governors is shown by another anecdote. 
It is related that on an occasion when a deputy 
objected to voting money to defray the funeral ex- 
penses of a governor's wife, he said that if it were for 
the purpose of burying the governor, he should have 
voted it gladly. 

Lord Bellomont was particularly directed to take 
orders for the extirpation of piracy and the establish- 
ment of the authority of the acts of trade, which 
were very little regarded in any of the colonies. In 

the Stuart dynasty was held, he ventured to make ad captandum re- 
marks about the reigning sovereign, whom he characterized as " the 
glorious instrument of our deliverance from the odious fetters and 
chains of popery and tyranny." He saw something godlike in King 
William, though, speaking after the familiar manner of the Puritans, 
he added : " I would not be misunderstood so as to be thought to 
rob God of the glory of that stupendous act of his providence, in 
bringing to pass the late happy and wonderful revolution in Eng- 
land. His blessed work it was, without doubt, and he was pleased 
to make King William immediately the author and instrument of it." 



198 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

endeavoring to destroy piracy, he entered into an 
agreement with one William Kidd, who was to range 
the oceans capturing pirates, and on his return to 
divide the profits of his expeditions with Bellomont 
and others who were associated with him. Whether 
rightly or wrongly, history has recorded that Kidd 
turned pirate himself, and he was tried, and, in due 
course, hanged for the crime,— an offence, be it re- 
membered, of which many persons who would have 
scorned not to be rated as respectable in New York 
society bad been for a generation guilty without 
having penalties meted out to them, and for which 
Bellom'rnt's predecessor in ofifice in that city had 
issued formal commissions. 

Bellomont remained at his post in Boston but 
about fourteen months. By his suavity and con. 
ciliatory measures he led the court to vote to him 
" presents " (in lieu of a salary, which they would 
not grant even to him), amounting in the aggregate 
to a larger sum than he had expressly desired as a 
formal stipend. This was far more than any of the 
other royal governors was able to accomplish. He 
found it entirely impossible to cajole the " Bos- 
toneers," as Randolph had called them, into any 
habit of dependence upon the crown ; nor could he 
lead them to give up a single privilege that they 
considered theirs by right. He went to New York 
in 1700, and died there in the following March. 

Stoughton became the chief executive upon the 
death of Bellomont, but he died himself in the fol- 
lowing July, and then the council carried out the 
laws until a successor could be sent from England. 



PROGNOSTICKS OF CALAMITIES. 199 

The times were thought to be very bad, and In- 
crease Mather preached two sermons that he entitled 
" Ichabod ; or, the Glory Departing from New Eng- 
land," in which he showed that both church and 
State were fast declining. " O New England ! New 
England ! " he exclaimed, " look to it that the glory 
be not removed from thee ! It has come to the 
threshold of the house, if not to the East Gate!" 
"If the fountain should fail; I mean the college, 
which has been one of the glories of New England, 
or (which is worse) become a nursery, not of plants of 
renown, but of degenerate plants, . . . the glory 
is like to be gone from these churches in less than 
one generation." On the death of Stoughton, Mr. 
Willard preached another sermon, entitled : " Prog- 
nosticks of Impending Calamities." 

Looking from the Puritan stand-point, there ap- 
peared to be reason for these forebodings. The crops 
had been poor for several years, the French and In- 
dian wars had filled the land with mourning, and be- 
sides there were efforts to give a new, and in the 
opinion of the old ministers, a dangerous, turn to 
the teachings of the college. It was in 1699 that 
Brattle Street Church was begun, and it was one of 
the indications of change, for it departed from the 
" Cambridge Platform," and broke in upon the 
Order of the Churches, for which reasons it was 
made the object of a protest by the existing minis- 
ters. The church bore the name of the " Manifesto " 
Church, among those opposed to it, because it issued 
a manifesto defending its course. It had for its first 
minister, Benjamin Colman, and he was followed by 



200 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

William and Samuel Cooper, Joseph Stevens Buck- 
minster, Edward Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, and 
the late Samuel K. Lothrop, all of them eminent as 
scholars and preachers. In this church the Psalms 
were no longer read and sung line by line, as had 
been the custom, a society for practising music was 
established, and singing by note was first intro- 
duced.* 

The choice of the sovereign for governor was 
made in 1702, and Joseph Dudley, who had been in 
England since he w^as sent there with Andros, some 
ten years previously, was appointed. He had often 
expressed a desire to lay his bones in America, and 
had long been an active aspirant for the office that 
he now obtained. Colman was a friend of the new 
governor, but the Mathers were his bitter opponents. 
Dudley was determined to rule the colony with a 
firm hand, and, remembering his former experience, 
he immediately objected to every member of the ex- 
isting council who had taken part in his condemna- 
tion, and also entered upon the usual struggle for 
salary. The court offered him less than one half the 
sum that had been given Bellomont (as a present, of 

* Instrumental music was apparently not relished or not approved, 
esperially in churches ; and at about the time of the Restoration of 
the Stuarts, we find an uncle writing to a student in Harvard College, 
in regard to his studies : " Music I had almost forgotten. I suspect 
you seek it both too soon and too mucli. This be assured of, that if 
you be not excellent in it, it is nothing at all ; and if you be excellent, 
it will take up so much of your time and mind that you will be worth 
little else ; and when all that excellence is attained, your acquest will 
prove little or nothing of real profit to you, unless you intend to take 
up the trade of fiddling." See Palfrey's " New England," ii., 67 ; 
iii., 134- 



VIRULENT LETTERS AGAINST DUDLEY. 20I 

course), and he refused it until he was advised to 
take it rather than nothing.* 

The war known as Queen Anne's began in 1702, 
and did not close until the peace of Utrecht in 171 3. 
During that period New England was again devas- 
tated by the savages, and the French, and armed 
bands were sent out from Boston by sea and land to 
attack and to repidse the enemies. Bounties were 
offered for Indian scalps, as high as forty pounds, 
in one case at least, and the men of the colony were 
debased by this new incentive to blood-shedding. 
In the midst of this war a vessel was sent to Nova 
Scotia with a flag of truce, the owner of which 
remained absent a long time, and on his return he 
was accused of having engaged in trade with the 
enemy. A number of persons were thought to have 
been imphcated in the venture, and, after a trial by 
the court, several of the persons were heavily fined. 
Dudley was accused of conniving in the crime, if not 
of sharing its profits, and a bitter petition was sent 
to the queen asking for his punishment. 

It was at about this time that the Mathers burst 
out with their virulent letters against Dudley. They 
charged him with most of the political crimes that 
a statesman can be guilty of, among which were 
bad faith, cruelty, corruption, bribery, and hypocrisy. 
Three days after these letters were written, as Judge 
Sewall was returning from the funeral of Mrs. Anne 
Needham (Jan. 23, 1708), in company with the 

* In- 1708, about the first of July, the deputies voted a present to 
the governor of two hundred pounds, and two hundred and twenty- 
five to the treasurer, " at which the governor was very angry, and said 
he would pass none of them [the votes], they would starve together." 



202 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

younger Mather, engaged in very devout conversa- 
tion, they turned aside to go to Madam Usher's, 
where Mather showed the Judge a copy of his letter, 
and Sewall expressed much interest to learn what 
the result of such plain-dealing would be. 

These matters seem to have been fought out at 
funerals, and in prayers and sermons. We are told 
that Mr. Colman shortly after " lashed " the Mathers 
in a sermon, for what they had " written, and 
preached, and prayed about the present contest with 
the governor." On January 25th, Mr. Mather made 
a prayer about certain faithful ones, in which Judge 
Sewall thought that he intended to animadvert upon 
his own vote against the virulent petition sent to 
England for the governor's removal ; and on the 
26th of May Mr. John Norton, minister of the 
church at Hingham (nephew of the former minister 
of the First Church in Boston), took up the matter 
and preached a " flattering sermon as to the gov- 
ernor." The newspaper in Boston '^ in those good old 
days seems not to have been familiar enough to be 
used for such personal matters as these. Mr. Norton 
was formally thanked by the court for his discourse, 
and a copy of it was desired for publication. Mr. 
Sewall was in close quarters at this time, for his son 
had married a daughter of Governor Dudley. 

* The first American newspaper, Pnblick Occurrences, appeared in 
Boston, September 25, 1690, but its editor, Benjamin Harris, a "brisk 
asserter of English Liberties," possessing too great a share of colonial 
independence, uttered " reflections of a very high nature," and the 
authorities stopped his venture at its first number. The Boston 
News-Letter, which followed, April 4, 1704, was for fifteen years the 
only newspaper in America. — Hudson, " Journalism in the United 
States," ch. i. 




INTERIOR OF CHRIST CHURCH AT PRESENT (BUILT I723). 



203 



204 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

Judge Sewall relates an amusing occurrence of 
this sort that happened in 1710. It seems that the 
judge had failed to invite the testy pastor of the 
South Church, the Reverend Ebenezer Pemberton, 
who was some twenty years his junior, to court on 
a certain November day in that year. Mr. Pember- 
ton resented the omission as an injury, " with extra- 
ordinary vehemency " and passion, " capering with 
his feet," the judge relates. Sewall replied that his 
" carriage was neither becoming a scholar nor min- 
ister," and he tells the readers of his Diary that he 
was surprised to see himself insulted with such ex- 
traordinary fierceness by his pastor. He was destined 
to be surprised again, for at the afternoon service at 
the South Church on the following Sunday, Mr. 
Pemberton asked the congregation to sing the first 
five verses of the fifty-eighth Psalm, and when the 
judge turned to the place he saw that that particular 
Psalm was directed against unjust judges, that it 
described their inveterate wickedness, and prayed for 
their speedy punishment. As the congregation sang : 

" Speak, O ye judges of the earth 
if just your sentence be : 
Or must not innocence appeal 
to heaven from your decree ? 

" Your wicked hearts and judgments are 
alike by malice swayed ; 
Your griping hands, by weighty bribes, 
to violence betrayed. 

" No serpent of parched Afric's breed 
doth ranker poison bear ; 
The drowsy adder will as soon 
unlock his sullen ear. 



ODD TEXTS FOR SERMONS. 20$ 

Unmoved by good advice, and deaf 

as adders they remain ; 
From vi^hom the skilful charmer's voice 

can no attention gain." 

It is not surprising that Sewall wrote of this act : 

*' I think if I had been in his place, and had been 
kindly and tenderly affectioned, I should not have done 
it at this time. Another Psalm might have suited his 
subject as well as the fifth verse of this. 'T is certain 
one may make libels of David's Psalms ; and if a person 
be abused, there is no remedy. I desire to leave it to 
God, who can and will judge righteously." 

In 1714, Boston received the news that Queen Anne 
had died, and that a new dynasty was upon the British 
throne. George the First became king August 1st 
of that year, but the news did not reach this side of 
the ocean until September 15th. Dudley occupied 
his office, with a brief intermission, until November 
9, I7i5> when he retired from public office to his 
estate at West Roxbury, where he died in 1720. On 
the occasion of his death laudatory notices were 
printed, and the Rev. Mr. Colman, of the Manifesto 
Church, preached from a pulpit hung with black, 
from the text, selected by Dudley, " By faith, Joseph, 
when he died." The clergy set the fashion of this 
affected use of Scripture. When Sewall's second 
wife died suddenly in the middle of the night, 
Thomas Prince, of the South Church, preached from 
the words : " At midnight, behold a cry was made " ; 
and when the judge himself died the same minister 
based his funeral discourse upon the words in I. Sam- 



206 THE GOVERNORS AND THE BOSTON PEOPLE. 

uel vii., 15 : "And Samuel judged Israel all the days 
of his life." This custom was long continued. The 
father of Mrs. John Adams, the Rev. William Smith, 
of Weymouth, is said to have preached in reference to 
her marriage in 1794, from Luke vii., 33 : " John came 
neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, 
' He hath a devil.' " John Adams was a lawyer, and 
there had been an ancient prejudice against his call- 
ing, which was thought hardly honest. Mr. Smith's 
eldest daughter had married Richard Cranch, on 
which occasion he is reported to have preached from 
Luke X., 42, " Mary hath chosen that good part, 
which shall not be taken away from her." 

The colony was not in a prosperous condition 
between 1675, when the war with Philip began, and 
171 3, when the struggle called Queen Anne's war 
closed. Five or six thousand of the best young men 
of the country had lost their lives, either in actual 
service or by disease contracted in it. This had 
retarded the growth of population, and the wars 
themselves had directly increased taxation, and this 
sent many persons to other colonies, thus adding to 
the burdens of those who were left. The strife of 
war had quieted party disputes during the last few 
years of Dudley's ofificial life, but it cannot be said 
that the experiment of governing Boston and the 
colony by rulers of the king's choosing had been 
remarkably successful thus far. 



XVI. 



STRAINED RELATIONS. 



Communities, like private persons, are often free 
to overlook matters in their times of prosperity that 
would be considered very annoying in periods of 
penury or pain. The same contrast exists between 
times when the mind is occupied by the effort to 
accomplish a much desired purpose, and the season 
after the design has been effected. It was not sur- 
prising that while the New England communities 
were occupied in war with the Indians they allowed 
their party strifes to lapse, nor that at those periods 
they had no wish to engage with the governor in 
quarrels about his salary. During the war that was 
closed by the treaty of Utrecht, public expenses, 
which were of course heavy, had been defrayed by 
issuing bills of credit ; and at the end of the struggle 
it was found that gold and silver had been banished 
from circulation, that exchange had risen, and that 
prices of commodities had followed it. There was 
financial distress, and various suggestions Were made 
by those who wished to alleviate it. 

The first party thought best to draw in all paper 
currency, and return to the use of gold and silver ; a 
second, and very numerous one, was in favor of the 

207 



208 STRAINED RELA TIONS. 

establishment of a private bank, which should issue 
notes to be received as money; and the third party 
wished to arrange for loans from the government to 
such citizens as would mortgage their estates for the 
purpose of providing security for principal and inter- 
est. The hard-money scheme had but few support- 
ers, and the colony was divided between the two 
other plans ; but as Boston favored the public loans, 
that method of relief was adopted, after a long 
struggle, and fifty thousand pounds in bills of credit 
were placed in the hands of trustees to be loaned to 
any of the inhabitants at five per cent, interest for 
five years. 

The choice of the sovereign for governor at this 
juncture fell upon Colonel Samuel Shute, whose 
brother, afterwards Lord Bari-ington, was leader of 
the dissenting interest in Parliament. The family 
of Shute were generally dissenters, and he himself 
sustained a good character as a friend of liberty, but 
not long after his arrival in Boston he professed that 
he was a member of the Church of England, and he 
was certainly very positive in efforts to bring the 
Bostoneers into a state of proper dependence upon the 
crown. He sustained the king's prerogative, and 
was determined to repress every token of popular 
government. Such a governor was destined to be 
in continual conflict with the inhabitants, except in 
measures against the still troublesome savages. 

The policy of controlling trade in such a manner 
as to militate against the interests of America, which 
had so long been popular in England, was now 
maintained with oppressive force. The "Board of 



-witrjji'/^ 



^-^ 







aqallBD 







r 



TROUBLE ABOUT MONEY AND TRADE. 209 

Trade " was a department of government v/hich 
seems to have been developed from an arrangement 
made by Cromwell in 1655, who then directed his 
son Richard, and others, to meet and consider means 
to promote the national commerce. In 1660, Charles 
the Second erected two councils of Trade and Plan- 
tations, which were soon made one, and that, after 
various fortunes, was given a new life in 1695. John 
Locke, one of its wisest and most influential members, 
advised the appointment of a dictator to control the 
colonies; and in 1701 the entire board urged the 
abrogation of all the charters and the establishment 
of such a government as should make the colonists 
duly subservient to England. Though this policy 
was not determined upon in form, it was the con- 
stant aim of the governors to bring about such a 
dependence as it proposed. The Board of Trade * 
asserted, in 1728, that the inhabitants of Boston did 
not make suitable returns to his majesty for the ex- 
traordinary privileges they enjoyed, and were " daily 
endeavoring to wrest the small remains of power out 
of the hands of the Crown, and to become indepen- 
dent of the mother kingdom." 

Governor Shute joined the opponents of the 
banking scheme, and while he was incompetent 
to devise any plan to give effectual financial relief, 
he permitted another emission of bills of one hun- 
dred thousand pounds to run ten years, which merely 

* Hutchinson says that Col. Martin Bladen, for many years one 
of the Board of Trade, often expressed to the colonial agents and 
others his apprehension that the Bostoneers intended to "set up for 
themselves." 




BOSTON AND ITS ENVIRONS IN I775. THIS SHOWS THE FORTIFICATIONS AROUND THE TOWN AT THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION; IT ALSO SERVES, SO FAR AS THE NATURAL 

FEATURES GO, TO ILLUSTRATE ALL STAGES OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY. 



2 1 5- TRA I NED RE LA TIONS. 

added to the difficulties. He took sides with the 
royal surveyor of the forests of Maine, who claimed 
certain white-pine trees for the king's navy, and 
caused the formation of parties which continued to 
give him trouble as long as he remained in Boston. 
On his arrival in America he gave consent to the 
levying of an impost duty upon goods from the 
West Indies and England brought to New England. 
This w^as considered to conflict with the interests of 
English traders, and notice was received from Lon- 
don that the action must be reversed. This the 
court declined to do, and a long conflict followed. 

The people were, as usual, ill-disposed in the mat- 
ter of salary, and refused to make this governor the 
customary " present," reducing the sum offered 
until, in the depreciated currency, it amounted to 
but three hundred and sixty pounds. The governor 
attempted to take from the house of deputies the 
privilege of choosing its own speaker, and this still 
further aroused their jealousies. The strife on this 
point was long and bitter. In the midst of it the 
house attempted to retaliate by taking into its own 
hands the appointment of the annual fast ; and, in 
consequence of the prevalence of the small-pox in 
Boston, it ventured to assert itself by adjourning to 
Cambridge, which brought about another contro- 
versy. The resentment of the house was finally 
extended to the governor's friends, and at last 
Shute left for England somewhat abruptly at the 
beginning of the year 1723, for the purpose of laying 
his grievances before the king. 

The year 1721 was notable for the scourge of 



THE SMALL-POX SCOURGE. 211 

small-pox, which has been mentioned. It attacked 
some six thousand persons, of whom one thousand 
died. Inoculation had just been introduced in Eng- 
land by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who began, 
in the face of intense opposition, by practising upon 
her little daughter, afterwards Lady Bute; and now 
Dr. Zabdiel Boylston did the same thing in Boston, 
in the face of similar opposition, which caused him 
much suffering in business and repute. Dr. Boylston 
likewise submitted one of his own children to the 
ordeal. The selectmen investigated the matter and 
pronounced against it ; it was thought little better 
than murder, but Cotton Mather came out in its 
favor, and gave his powerful encouragement to Dr. 
Boylston. Mather invited the physicians to meet 
and consult about undertaking inoculation, in order, 
he said, " that whoever first begins this practice may 
have the concurrence of his worthy brethren to 
fortify him." The conservative physicians did not 
accept the invitation, but Dr. Boylston was not de- 
terred ; he inoculated two hundred and eighty-six 
persons, of whom but six died, and it was shown 
that the recovery of those who died would have 
been little short of a miracle. Of five thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-nine who were not inocu- 
lated eight hundred and forty-four died. 

This scourge was a serious detriment to the 
progress of the town ; but in the midst of the in- 
fliction (in spite of the ill-success of the second 
newspaper, the Neivs-Letter), James Franklin, brother 
of the more celebrated Benjamin, began the third 
paper in Boston. The Franklins had no reverence 



212 STRAINED RELATIONS. 

for the Mathers, being more influenced probably by 
the puerile pomposity and vanity of Cotton Mather, 
for example, than by his piety and learning. The 
venerable Increase, then eighty-four years of age, 
discerned " the inspiration of the devil " in the third 
number of the Coicrant, in consequence of which he 
denounced it in the columns of the Neivs-Letter. 
He said that though it had been reported that he 
was one of the supporters of the Coiirant, he was, on 
the contrary, " extremely offended with it," because 
in one of its numbers it insinuated " that if the min- 
isters of God approve of a thing, it is a sign it is of 
the devil ; which is a horrid thing to be related." 
" I, that have known what New England was from 
the beginning," he continued, "cannot but be 
troubled to see the degeneracy of this place. I can 
well remember when the civil government would 
have taken an effectual course to suppress such a 
cursed libel, which if it be not done, I am afraid that 
some awful judgment will come upon this land, and 
the wrath of God will arise and there will be no 
remedy. I cannot but pity poor Franklin." The 
court did take the matter in hand, and the publisher 
was obliged to give bonds not to print any thing 
that had not passed an appointed censor. 

Governor Shute did not return to Boston, and for 
several years the lieutenant-governor, William Dum- 
mer, occupied the post. He was largely employed 
by the ever-active Indians to the eastward. Being 
a native, it might have been expected that he would 
accomplish something towards mediating between 
the crown and the colonists, but he did not affect 



ONE OF SE WALL'S PICTURES. 213 

any thing in that direction. During the time that 
he was performing the duties of chief executive, the 
efforts of Shute resulted in the granting of an 
" Explanatory Charter" (in 1725), which ensured to 
the governor a veto power upon the nomination for 
opeaker of the house, and took from that body the 
right of adjourning for longer periods than two days ; 
but left the vexed subject of salary open, to remain 
a matter of constant dispute. 

During this interval, also, both Increase and Cot- 
ton Mather died, the one in 1723, and the other five 
years later, and with them closed the paramount 
influence of the dynasty upon the affairs of the town 
and the colony. The father had preached sixty-six 
years, and had presided over Harvard College for 
twenty; the son was in the pulpit forty-seven years, 
and was one of the overseers of the college. In spite 
of his lack of ordinary judgment and his great 
credulity, he must be acknowledged to have been a 
person of merit, and his ability to acquire all sorts of re- 
condite information has, perhaps, never been equalled 
in America. Six of the first ministers of Boston bore 
Cotton Mather to the tomb, and the body was fol- 
lowed by all the principal ofificials, ministers, scholars, 
and men of affairs, while the streets were thronged 
and the " windows were filled with sorrowful specta- 
tors all the way to the burying-place," which was on 
Copp's Hill. 

Judge Sewall lets us into many an intimate view 
of character in the days of the Mathers, and some of 
his pictures are by no means adapted to hold up the 
good old times to our admiration. In many particu- 



214 S TRA INED RE LA TIONS. 

lars the men of those days acted in a way that would 
be thought quite unworthy of persons in the same 
stations now, and the way in which they used lan- 
guage, especially opprobrious language, is astonishing 
to those not familiar with the vigor of some of the 
contemporary worthies in the mother-country. There 
was in those days a bookseller named Richard Wil- 
kins, whose shop was a favorite resort, and we are 
told that one day Mr. Cotton Mather went there and 
talked very sharply against Sewall, who was then 
captain of the " Ancient and Honorable " Artillery 
Company. He said that Sewall had used his father. 
Increase, worse than a nigger ; and he spoke so loud 
that he was audible in the street.* The humble and 
guileless captain says that he had read that morning 
Mr. Dod's saying " Sanctified afflictions are good 
promotions," which he now found was a cordial ; 
but he thought it well to expostulate with Mr. 
Mather a little in the same shop two days later, 
"from I. Timothy v., i," in company with witnesses. 
Mather said he had considered the passage men- 
tioned ; whereupon Sewall turned upon him his own 
book upon the "Law of Kindness for the Tongue," 
and asked whether Mather considered that his acts 
corresponded with his precepts, and whether they 
corresponded with Christ's rule. Mather only justi- 
fied his " reviling me behind my back," says Sewall, 

* When Cotton Mather was excited in debate he found, as he said 
to Governor Dudley, in 1708, with his usual pompous verbiage, that 
" the schemes of speaking and modes of addressing used among per- 
sons of the most polite education " did not prove equal to the demands 
made upon them. He, therefore, adopted the " schemes of speaking" 
used among less polished persons, as in the present instance. 



JOSIAH WILLARD CUTS HIS HAIR. 21 5 

and charged the council with " lying, hypocrisy, 
tricks, and I know not what all." Sewall asked if 
this were done with meekness ; and Mather replied, 
confidently, " Yes ! " retorting a speech made by 
Sewall in the council, to the effect that if Mather 
should go to Cambridge, his example would do more 
hurt than his going would do good. Sewall owned 
his words, and asked if Mather would like to have 
him exclaim against him in the street, if he supposed 
him to have done amiss as a church ofificer, and 
added, very appropriately, it seems to us, that he 
conceived that Mather had done much that was un- 
becoming a minister of the Gospel. The discussion 
became so loud and unseemly that Wilkins was fain 
to have Mather go into a private room ; but Mather 
would not, and soon Sewall was called to a meeting 
of the council, where, he says, we " hammered out 
an order for a Day of Thanksgiving." The next 
day Mr. Increase Mather went to the shop, and de- 
clared that, as he was a servant of Jesus Christ, 
" some great judgment would fall on Captain Sewall 
or his family." Two days later still, Sewall gave 
a copy of his speech in council to Wilkins, to show, 
in order that all might see the grounds of Mr. 
Mather's anger. 

While we are with this unreserved diarist, let us 
see something of the customs of the time, as he 
exhibits them in his bland and childlike style. One 
June day in the year 1701, Sewall heard that Josiah 
Willard, son of the minister of the Old South Church, 
had cut off his hair, and put on a wig, — and he had 
a full head of hair, — so he felt it his duty to call 



2 1 6 5 TRA IN ED RE LA TIONS. 

upon the young gentleman. He found his mother, 
and announced his errand, upon which Josiah was 
sent for. Sewall began the conversation by enquiring 
what " extremity had forced him to put off his nat- 
ural hair," and Josiah was obliged to reply that 
there was none at all ; but said that his hair was 
straight and parted behind, and seemed to argue 
that men might as well shave their heads as their 
faces. Sewall responded that half of mankind never 
have any hair on the face, which was an unexpected 
admission that women belonged to " mankind." He 
continued to the effect that God seems to have 
given men hair as a test, to see if they would be 
content to remain as he made them, or whether they 
would be their own " carvers and lords." He said 
that such conduct as this of Willard's would be dis- 
pleasing to good men, and " they that care not what 
men think of them, care not what God thinks of 
them." Sewall was prepared for this interview, for 
he had that morning read the " tenth chapter of the 
third book of Calvin's Institutions," " in course," 
{Coimncnt il faut tiser de la vie prifscnt et ses aides) 
and he commended the same to Willard. He told 
him that such cutting of the hair was condemned at 
a meeting of ministers at Mr. Stoddard's house in 
Northampton, " when the said Josiah was there," 
upon which the young man wavered, " and seemed 
to say that he would leave off his wig when his hair 
was grown." ,Willard's father afterwards thanked 
Sewall for this plain-dealing, and promised that when 
the son's hair was long enough to cover his ears, the 
wig should be put off; that the cutting should never 



SEW ALL DRLNKS TO MATHER. 21/ 

have been accomplished had he known it ; and that 
Mrs. Willard heard her son talk of doing it, but seemed 
to fear to forbid it, lest the son should do it in spite 
of her, and " so be more faulty." 

In June, 1701, the aged lieutenant-governor 
wished to go to commencement at Cambridge, his 
special desire being to make a present of a "grace 
cup to the corporation." He proved too feeble to 
go, and Sewall made the presentation in a vein of 
solemn pleasantry. After the dinner, Sewall took 
the cup, had it filled up, and drank to the President 
(Increase Mather), saying that by reason of the ab- 
sence of "him who was the firmament and ornament 
of the province and of that society," he presented 
the Grace Cup, adding, " The providence of our 
Sovereign Lord is very investigable in that our 
Grace Cups, brim-full, are passing round, when our 
brethren in France * are petitioning for their coup 
de graced It was not only on such occasions as this 
that Mr. Sewall and those of his strictly religious 
views partook of the brimming cup ; they appreci- 
ated highly the virtues of " canary wine " and good 
beer, and we find that it was a not infrequent custom 
to step into a place where such creature comforts 
were legally supplied, for the purpose of obtaining 
them and of using them " on the premises." 

They were exceedingly careful about many things 
that are yet considered important, as well as about 
such indifferent matters as cutting the hair, and the 

* This was at the time of suspense between the death of Charles the 
Second, of Spain, and the formation of the Grand Alliance against 
Louis the Fourteenth. 



2l8 STRAINED RELATIONS. 

style of dress. The world has overtaken them in 
the matter of dress, and any man who should now 
array himself in the ribbons and gold that were 
affected by the Cavaliers, and against which the 
Puritans protested would be deemed little better 
than a coxcomb, if he were not supposed to have 
lost his wits. The simple black of the Puritans 
is now the color of all well-dressed gentlemen in 
American society. On the other hand we have not 
followed them in their views about the garments of 
women, nor in their appreciation of the moderate 
amount of education that the fair sex may be per- 
mitted to obtain. We can well sympathize with Sew- 
all, however, when he writes : " Having been long and 
much dissatisfied with the trade of fetching Negroes 
from Guinea, at last I had a strong inclination to 
write something about it ; but it wore off. At last 
reading Bayne about servants, who mentions Black- 
amoors, I began to be uneasy that I had so long 
neglected doing any thing. . . . Mr. C. Mather re- 
solves to publish a sheet to exhort masters to labor 
for their conversion, which makes me hope that I 
was called of God to write this apology for them." 
Judge Sewall was decidedly in advance of " C. 
Mather," for he wrote a tract entitled " The Selling 
of Joseph," in which he amplified an expression of 
his own that we have already quoted regarding the 
slave trade. He said there was no " proportion 
between twenty pieces of silver and LIBERTY " 
(which he spelled large) ; that Joseph's brethren had 
no right to sell him, and that (bringing the argument 
down to a low basis) it " may be a question whether 



EARLY CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 219 

all the benefit received by Negro slaves will balance 
the account of cash laid out upon them." Finally, 
rising in the argument, he says : " Methinks when 
we are bemoaning the barbarous usage of our friends 
and kinfolk in Africa, it might not be unseasonable 
to enquire whether we are not culpable in forcing 
the Africans to become slaves among ourselves." 
Sewall was out of sympathy with his time, but we find 
that six months after this tract was published, some 
had come to see the weight of his reasoning, for one 
of the ofificers of the crown, at the time of taking 
his official oath, thanked him for " The Selling of 
Joseph," saying " 't was an ingenious discourse." 

The correspondence and diaries of the time are 
full of evidences of that conscientiousness which is ap- 
parent in those of the earlier day. Sewall tells us, 
for example, that in August, 1701, he went down 
the harbor to the Castle, now Fort William, where 
Colonel Romer, a famous engineer, more noted for 
his ability in the line of his profession than for his 
Puritanic character, was rebuilding the works. The 
object of the visit was to " tell the young men that 
if any intemperate language proceeded from Col. 
Romer," it was not the intention of the authorities 
in employing him to " countenance that, or to en- 
courage their imitation," but that they should obey 
his directions only in so far as he was exercising his 
professional skill in the work, " lest it should be 
thought," he carefully adds, " that the Council had 
too much winked at his cursing and swearing, which 
was complained of." 

We find that the tables at this time were exceed- 



220 



STRAINED RELATIONS. 



ingly well provided. Mrs. Sewall feasted some of 
her women one day with a dinner that her husband 
called " good," comprising " boiled pork, beef, fowls, 
very good roast-beef, turkey pie and tarts." On 
other occasions there were provided " roast beef, veni- 
son pastry, cake and cheese," and there was not un- 
commonly " cider, apples, and a glass of wine," sack 
and posset, or similar provisions, even when they 
"sung several Psalms," or when there were exhorta- 
tions and prayers. 




XVII. 



IS IT LAWFUL TO RESIST? 



In the last days of the Mathers there stood in the 
North End, on the corner of an alley that ran from 
North Street eastward to Ship Street, an inn some- 
times known as the Tzvo Palavcrcrs, because it bore 
on its sign a representation of two old gentlemen in 
wigs, cocked hats, and knee-breeches, ceremoniously 
saluting each other. It was better known as Saluta- 
tion Inn, and from this fact the alley was called Salu- 
tation Alley. It was in the vicinity of the ship-yards, 
and the hospitable apartments of this inn, at about 
the year 1724, a score of men, most of whom lived 
in that region of Boston, were accustomed to meet 
from time to time as a club, or "caucus," to lay 
plans " for introducing certain persons into places of 
trust and power." ^ The most prominent member of 
this club was Samuel Adams, a man born to be a 
leader, then thirty-five years of age, a justice of the 
peace, and deacon in the Old South Church, not far 
from which he occupied a pleasant home on Pur- 
chase Street. He was a wise man, a good man, and 

* " The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the 
Independence of the United States of America," by Wm. Gordon, 
D.D., vol. i., p. 252, note. 

221 



222 IS IT LA WFUL TO RESIST? 

was entrusted by his fellow townsmen with the im- 
portant offices of selectman and member of assembly.* 
Samuel Adams was of Celtic blood, descended from 
an immigrant reputed to have come to Quincy from 
Devonshire, England, who became ancestor of a long 
line of men who made the name of Adams famous 
in the annals of America for a century and a half. 
The " Caulker's Club," as the organization just re- 
ferred to was called, is an indication that the Bos- 
toneers were uniting for the purpose of strengthen- 
ing their hold on public affairs, and we shall find 
that it proved an educating influence that was influ- 
ential not on the membership alone, but also through 
them upon the whole Boston community. 

At the time of the departure of Governor Shute, 
and during the interval that Dummer was acting in 
his stead, a son of the famous Bishop Burnet was 
governing New York and New Jersey, and he was 
doing it so judiciously that when George the Second 
wished that position for a favorite, he transferred 
William Burnet to Boston, and made him governor 
of Massachusetts. Burnet did not look upon this 
change as a reward, but as a calamity; for lie had 
come to America to retrieve his fortune, and he 
foresaw that the new post was not a favorable one 
for that purpose, as, indeed, it was not. He com- 
plained that his fate was a hard one, and it was 
evident that his spirits were depressed. 

* Mr. Adams was one of the most influential among those persons 
who formed the New South Church in 171 5, and built a meeting-house 
on land granted them by the town. The site was apparently intended 
by the early settlers for such a use, and was known as Church Green. 
It was on Summer Street, in the " South End" of those days. The 
Iniilding was completed in 1717. 




SAMUEL ADAMS — AT THE AGE OF 45 YEARS. 
After the portrait by Copley in the Art Museum (1772). 



223 



224 ^S IT LA WFUL TO RESIST? 

When he came to Boston, which was not until 
July, 1728, he was welcomed with wondrous pomp; 
many gentlemen went as far as Narragansett Bay to 
meet him as he disembarked from the schooner in 
which he arrived from New York, and such a multi- 
tude of horses and carriages waited upon him as he 
approached Boston that he passed along the Neck 
accompanied by a cavalcade greater than had ever 
been seen on such an occasion, and none equalled it 
for many years afterwards.* The town expended 
eleven hundred pounds upon the pomp and parade ; 
there was a thunder of artillery, from the ships in 
the harbor and the cannon in the forts, and loud 
huzzas from a multitude that was described as al- 
most numberless ; there were addresses and there was 
a poetical welcome written by that uncontrollable 
punster, the bombastical Mather Byles, afterwards 
minister of the Hollis Street Church. In this effu- 
sion the young theologian gave free wing to his 
fancy and patriotism, crying out in his enthusiasm, 

" Welcome, great man, to our desiring eyes ; 
Thou earth proclaim it, and resound ye skies ! 

* At the time of these joyous proceedings, Sir William Keith, once 
Governor of Pennsylvania, proposed to the king that duties of stamps 
on parchment and paper should by act of Parliament be extended to 
the American colonies. Sir Robert Walpole, it is said, remarked 
that he would leave the taxing of the colonies to some successor 
possessing more courage and less desire to increase commerce. 
Walpole wished to enlarge American trade ; but eleven years later 
the proposal was renewed by some British merchants, and received 
consideration. Later still (1765) the suggestion was adopted, much 
to the disadvantage of English commerce, as Samuel Adams shall 
show us. 



GOVERNOR BURNET WELCOMED. 225 

Voice answering voice in joyful consort meet, 
The hills all echo, and the rocks repeat : 
And thou, O Boston, mistress of the towns. 
Whom the pleased bay with amorous arms surrounds, 
Let thy warm transports blaze in numerous fires, 
And beaming glories glitter on thy spires ; 
Let rockets streaming up the ether glare. 
And flaming serpents hiss along the air ! " 
" While rising shouts a general joy proclaim. 
And every tongue, O Burnet, lisps thy name ! " 

Burnet's commission was opened at the court- 
house, and received with uncommon joy. He was 
himself conducted to the BuncJi of Grapes tavern, a 
few doors from the town-house, for what reason the 
anti-temperance principles of the people may allow 
us to guess. It is not strange that in the face of such 
exuberance as this Burnet should think that his path 
was to be smoother than he had been led to expect. 
In addressing the citizens he disssimulated his dis- 
appointment and said that it was not easy for him to 
express the pleasure he had in coming to Boston, that 
his commission had been received " in so respectful 
and noble a manner," and the "glory and wealth of 
this great province had appeared in so strong a 
light " that he had no doubt that they would settle 
the matter of salary in a suitable manner. 

This began a contest, for the people were then 
just as determined as they had been before, that all 
taxes should be laid of their own free will, and not 
by dictation of king or parliament. They were just 
as determined then as they were fifty years later ; 
in fact, their stand was not changed from the begin- 
ning, — they were independent at all times. The 



226 IS IT LA WFUL TO RESIST? 

house was willing to meet the expenses of the gov- 
ernor's coming to them, and to support him ; but 
they would not vote a "salary" ; and the governor 
was true to his instructions ; he would receive noth- 
ing less than an established stipend. The colonists 
were somewhat encouraged in their course by the fact 
that the inhabitants of Barbadoes were at the same 
time engaged in a contest with their governor against 
a fixed salary, especially as the islanders could not 
sustain their cause by an appeal to a charter. The 
people of the Barbadoes had given their governor a 
large salary, but he had oppressed them, and they 
retaliated in this way. They gave up the struggle 
at last, but compromised by decreasing the amount 
of the stipend. Governor Burnet thought to gain 
his point by refusing consent to all acts of the legis- 
lature until the salary should be voted, and thus the 
members of tlie house were unable to obtain their 
own pay ; but the merchants of Boston stepped to 
their relief and advanced the necessary funds, the 
people voting them at the spring town-meeting.* 
The governor said that the house was too much 
influenced by the inhabitants of the town ; for in 
voting the money to the representatives the Bos- 
tonians had unanimously declared their opposi- 
tion to the salary. This Burnet, in great wrath, 
pronounced " an unnecessary forwardness, an at- 
tempt to give law to the country," and accordingly 
he adjourned the legislature to Salem, " where 

* In all of these discussions the town of Boston was stiff in its 
independence, though the deputies from the country places sometimes 
favored the royal prerogative. 



GLOVES AND KINGS FOR MOURNERS. 22/ 

prejudice had not taken root." The change of 
place did not efTect any change of temper, and 
the unhappy dispute continued. Nothing was done 
after several unsuccessful sessions, and the governor 
adjourned the house to Cambridge. Meantime he 
was in straits for money, himself, but no town 
offered to give him help, and he was much dis- 
tressed ; but ever true to his royal master, he would 
not compromise the matter. The discussion grew 
warmer, the breach wider, and messages flew faster 
and faster between the house and the governor, 
until, at last, the governor being overthrown in his 
chaise on the Cambridge causeway, caught a cold, 
which, with his official perplexities, so wore upon 
him, that his death followed, of a fever (after an 
illness of about five days), at Boston, September 
7, 1729. He had held his office but fourteen months. 
Governor Burnet was an amiable and estimable 
man in many respects, and the people of Massachu- 
setts found no fault with him ; they objected to a 
principle only. When he died they appropriated 
eleven hundred pounds for the expenses of his 
funeral, which was conducted after the English 
fashion. Gloves and rings were given to the mourn- 
ing members of the general court, and the ministers 
of King's chapel, to three physicians, the bearers, 
the president of Harvard College, and the women 
who laid out the body ; while gloves only were 
given to the under-bearers, the justices, the captains 
of the castle and of the man-of-war in the harbor, to 
officers of the customs, professors and fellows of the 
college, and the ministers of Boston who happened 



228 IS IT LA WFUL TO RESIST t 

to attend the funeral. Wine was furnished to the 
Boston regiment as much as was thought needful.* 
Several years later a grant of three thousand pounds 
was made to the governor's children, who were 
orphans. 

George the Second now commissioned as governor 
Jonathan Belcher, son of a prosperous Boston mer- 
chant, and a graduate of Harvard College, who had 
previously been in office in the colony. He was 
a polished and sociable gentleman, had travelled 
extensively, and in the course of his European wan- 
derings had been more than once at the court at 
Hanover, where he had been noticed with distin- 
guished politeness. As governor he lived elegantly, 
entertained much, made great show in equipage 
and dress, and might have been popular had he not 
been indiscreet in his personal remarks about those 
whom he disapproved. He was a supporter of the 
royal prerogative, and the people found very soon 
that in changing governors they had gained nothing ; 
but had simply changed the person with whom they 
were fighting. 

* The distribution of rings was common at New England funerals, 
and gloves and scarfs were also given away at such times, until 1721 
when the general court decreed that scarfs must not longer be dis- 
tributed, because a burdensome custom. In 1741, wine and rum 
were forbidden to be distributed. In the English funerals of the 
olden time vast quantities of eatables and drinkables were given away, 
and we read that on the occasion of burying a lord in the time of 
Charles the Second, while an oration was delivered, "a large pot of 
wine stood upon the coffin, out of which every on drank to the health 
of the deceased." One Boston clergyman, in 1748, left a record of 
two thousand nine hundred and forty pairs of gloves that he had 
received. He sold as many of the rings and gloves as he could. 



DISCUSSIONS OF SALARY AND CURRENCY. 22g 

Governor Belcher landed from a war-ship, August 
10, 1730, and was received with much parade. He 
soon began his efforts to obtain a salary, and it was 
found that his instructions were couched in much 
stronger terms than those of Burnet, the sovereign 
threatening that in case of obstinacy the previous 
unwarrantable practices of the colonists would be 
brought to the attention of Parliament. Belcher 
was directed to return immediately to England if 
the salary were not voted. Session after session 
passed ; the house voting as usual that to grant a 
salary would deprive themselves of their rights as 
Englishmen, and the governor threatening that he 
would go back to London if a salary were not pro- 
vided. At last, in 1735, orders came from England 
to Belcher, first to accept certain particular grants, 
and then to take whatever he could get. Robert 
Walpole, who did not care to meddle with the 
affairs of the colony when he could with decency let 
them alone, probably had enough to occupy his 
attention in his efforts to keep England out of a 
continental war, and did not enjoy the constant 
stories of bickerings that came to him from the dis- 
tant colonies of New England, the importance of 
which he could not so clearly estimate as he could 
that of those nearer home. The victory seems to 
us to have been clearly on the side of the Americans. 

At this time (1740) the currency was paper, and it 
had so greatly depreciated that five hundred and 
fifty pounds of it were worth but one hundred 
pounds of sterling exchange. The balance of trade 
was against Boston, and the good coins that Hull 



230 IS IT LAWFUL TO RESIST? 

had made in 1650 and 1660 had all gone out of cir- 
culation. The projector of the bank of 17 14,, who 
had seen his plan ignored, now proposed it anew, 
and the people were pleased to establish what was 
known as the " Land Bank " scheme, a private en- 
terprise by which it was hoped to put farther off the 
day when financial affairs should be brought to a 
specie basis. This action was opposed to an act of 
Parliament passed twenty years before, which had, 
however, no bearing upon the plantations ; and now 
Parliament suppressed the new bank, by simply de- 
claring that its former act should extend to the col- 
onies from its passage ; a singular retroactive asser- 
tion, the propriety of which may well be doubted. 
Its effect was not only to stop the operations of the 
land bank, but to give every bill-holder a right to 
sue every partner or director for the sum which he 
might have lost. This threw the directors into con- 
sternation. The stockholders of this bank were 
men of character, and among them we find the 
names of Samuel Adams, of Purchase Street, Robert 
Hale, of Beverly, and others of equally high repute. 
During this time there had been a dispute between 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire regarding their 
respective jurisdictions, and it was settled by Belcher 
in such a way that Massachusetts lost a considerable 
territory that she had claimed. The same process 
had been pursued in the region of Plymouth and 
Rhode Island, and Massachusetts had also lost in 
those directions. There had always been a party in 
the colony disaffected with the governor, and his 
opposition to the bank strengthened it and increased 



THE FIRST '' CENTENNIAL." 23 1 

the number of his enemies to such an extent that 
they were able to undermine him in England and 
finally to effect his recall. He was removed in 1741. 
England had accomplished nothing in the way of 
breaking down the spirit of independence in New 
England by his instrumentality. 

The year that Governor Belcher came to Boston 
was the close of the first century of its existence, 
and " centennial sermons " were preached in which 
the occasion was made the most of, not by way of 
historical edification so much as for the purpose of 
impressing proper moral and religious lessons. It 
happened that Judge Samuel Sewall died on the 
first day of January in that year, and at his funeral 
his pastor, Thomas Prince, the chronologist, who was 
minister of the South Church, being colleague of 
Joseph Sewall, son of- the judge, preached a sermon 
which was of the nature of a centennial discourse. 
At the opening of the general court in May, Mr. 
Thomas Prince again was preacher, and he made 
fitting reference to the events of 1630, and probably 
repeated to his hearers many facts that he had re- 
ceived from his old parishioner Judge Sewall, who 
had been familiar with the history of Boston to 
within thirty years of the landing of Winthrop. In 
August Mr. Thomas Foxcroft of the First Church 
followed with a discourse entitled " Observations 
Historical and Practical on the Rise and Primitive 
State of New England " ; and during the sessions of 
the court Mr. John Webb, of the North Church, 
preached a Thursday lecture " On the Great Con- 
cern of New England," in which he brought before 



232 IS IT LAWFUL TO RESIST? 

his congregation the " awful signs of God's with- 
drawing from us," mentioning especially the " flood 
of irreligion and profaneness," the " terrible cursing 
and swearing, pernicious lying, slandering and back- 
biting, cruel injustice and oppression, rioting and 
drunkenness," etc. 

In 1740 Boston had a visit from the celebrated 
young evangelist, George Whitefield, who had gone 
to Georgia the year before and now stopped in New 
England on his way home. He preached for Dr. 
Colman and Mr. Cooper in the Brattle Street Church 
first, September 19th, and at the South Church the 
following day, to vast crowds on each occasion ; and 
he spoke several times on the Common to audiences 
estimated at from eight thousand to twenty thou- 
sand persons. A very acrimonious warfare of 
pamphlets was waged over him afterwards, but it is 
unquestioned that his audiences were deeply im- 
pressed by discourses which are said to have been 
delivered in " such a tender, earnest, and moving 
manner as melted the assembly into tears." 

When Mr. Whitefield visited Cambridge, he was 
rather sharp in his criticism of the college. In his 
diary, published afterwards, he wrote, under date Sep- 
tember 24, 1740 : 

" Went this morning to see and preach at Cambridge, 
the chief college for training up the sons of the prophets 
in all New England. It has one president, four tutors, 
upwards of one hundred students. It is scarce as big as 
one of our least colleges in Oxford, and as far as I could 
gather from some who well knew the state of it, not far 
superior to our imiversities in piety and true godliness. 



WHITEFIELD VS. HARVARD COLLEGE. 233 

Tutors neglect to pray with and examine the hearts of 
their pupils. Discipline is at too low an ebb. Bad books 
are becoming fashionable among them." 

A few weeks later he added : " As for the univer- 
sities, I believe it may be said their light is now 
become darkness, — darkness that may be felt ; and 
is complained of by the most godly ministers." 

President Holyoke was inclined to think well of 
Whitefield, though he deprecated his extravagance, 
and thought that his "godly jealousy for the 
churches of Christ " had caused him to bear false 
witness against the college, and he united with the 
professors in publishing a pamphlet in which the 
evangelist's " arrogance, rashness, and censoriosness " 
were exposed, and he himself boldly pronounced an 
" uncharitable person and a deluder of the people." 
Tutor Flynt thought that Whitefield was a " com- 
position of a great deal of good and some bad," as 
" very apt to judge harshly, and censure in the 
severest terms those who differ from his scheme." 
Doubtless there was truth in what Tutor Flynt said. 
It must be remembered that Whitefield was at the 
time only twenty-five years of age, had been flattered 
and caressed in a remarkable manner, and that he 
might well have been led into extravagances by per- 
sons not friendly to the college. 

The last years of the official life of Governor 
Belcher are to be remembered as connected with 
the foundation of one of Boston's most noted public 
buildings. For many years the subject of markets 
had been discussed in one form and another. In 
1 717 it was represented that the inhabitants were 



234 ^S IT LA IVFUL TO RESIST? 

imposed upon by hucksters, and a committee of the 
town-meeting reported in favor of establishing a 
market-house, but the town, after debating the sub- 
ject, disallowed it. It 1733 it was voted to put up 
three such buildings in different parts of town, 
and money was appropriated for the purpose. They 
were erected ; but that at the North End was taken 
down and the timber used for building a work-house ; 
one at the South End was changed into shops ; and 
the third, which was at Dock Square, was demol- 
ished by a mob that carried off the timber for pri- 
vate use. 

Now the matter was brought up again, and many 
favored the erection of such a structure, but a 
majority could not be obtained at town-meeting 
until Mr. Peter Faneuil, a wealthy member of 
a Huguenot family from Rochelle, offered to 
build a market-house on the site of the one de- 
stroyed at Dock Square, provided the town would' 
legally authorize it and make proper regulations for 
its care. So great was the opposition to the project 
even in this form that three hundred and sixty 
persons voted against accepting the gift, and 
but seven more in favor of it. The majority of 
seven votes carried the day, however, and Faneuil 
Hall was given to the town. It was finished and 
formally accepted in 1742 ; but so few people re- 
sorted to it that it was almost entirely abandoned, 
and in 1747 the town voted to close it. It was 
opened again in March, 1748, for three days in the 
week, but in 1752, after a sharp contest, it was in- 
definitely closed. It was destroyed by fire in 1761, 



FANEUIL HALL IS BUILT. 



23s 



but rebuilt in 1763, with some alterations, but of the 
original size, a lottery being authorized for the pur- 
pose of supplying the funds. The first building was 
of brick, one hundred feet by forty; in 1806 it was 
enlarged to eighty feet in width and one story was 
added to its height. Faneuil Hall became the favorite 
place for public meetings, and it is not a little notable 




TilK SECOND FANEUIL HALL (1764J. 



that the first formal oration pronounced in it was 
delivered March 14, 1743, on the occasion of the 
founder's death. The Reverend Charles Chauncy, 
of the First Church, began the exercises with prayer, 
after which Mr. John Lovell, master of the South 
Grammar School, advanced to the moderator's seat, 
and pronounced his eulogy, in the course of which 



236 IS IT LAWFUL TO RESIST? 

with prophetic forecast he exclaimed : " May Liberty 
always spread its joyful wings over this place ! " 

The year 1740 is memorable because it was the 
one in which a son of Samuel Adams of the Caulk- 
ers' Club graduated at Cambridge. Of all the orators 
who ever opened their lips in Faneuil Hall this son, 
who was, like his father, named Samuel, was the one 
who gave it the right to be called the " Cradle of 
Liberty," and may be said to have begun the fulfil- 
ment of the somewhat rhetorical prophesy of Master 
Lovell. " Sam " Adams, as his contemporaries 
called him, probably in affectionate distinction from 
his father, was a Puritan of the Puritans; educated 
in the atmosphere of strict fidelity to the religious 
faith of the fathers, familiar with the independent 
conversation of the members of the Caulkers' Club, 
some of whom were doubtless among the throng of 
welcome visitors at the Purchase Street dwelling, an 
intelligent pupil at the wooden school-house that 
then stood back of King's Chapel, and gave its name 
to the street ; stirred in his soul by the preaching of 
Whitefield, which quickened all Boston, he was 
ready after his college course was completed to ex- 
emplify in his life the principles upon which the gen- 
erations before him had founded the commonwealth. 
Three years after graduation Sam Adams began to 
show that he was to be a thoughtful and daring 
speaker for the liberties of the people, for he took for 
his subject when candidate for the degree of Master 
of Arts the question," Whether it Be Lawful to Re- 
sist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth 
Cannot Otherwise be Preserved ? " 



ADAMS ASKS A QUESTION. 237 

Whatever Adams said on this occasion, standing 
in the presence of the President, Edward Holyoke, 
the dignified professors, and his excellency the gov- 
ernor, representing His most gracious Majesty, King 
George the Second, besides the other ofificials of the 
Crown, he showed in what direction events were 
tending. The people had now been for a hundred 
years standing up for what they considered their 
rights, in the employment of measures of a peaceful 
kind ; they had placed every obstacle in the way 
of the king when he attempted to take from them 
their charter ; and when it had been snatched away, 
they had made the path of the governors sent to 
them as full of thorns as they could, interposing ob- 
stacles almost insurmountable to the peaceful per- 
formance of the duties demanded of them; now they 
stood at a place where Samuel Adams could ask 
them whether it was lawful to take up arms in case 
the liberties of the people could not otherwise be 
preserved. It was a bold step on the part of a 
young man, and it was taken at a moment when its 
influence must have been great, and on a spot to be 
remembered. 

Public occasions at Harvard College were import- 
ant in those days, and they are still considered times 
when high themes are to be presented and discussed 
in a rational manner. In one of his least objection- 
able "poems," Mather Byles describes a festal occa- 
sion at Harvard College in glowing terms. It was a 
day when all the neighboring towns emptied them- 
selves into Cambridge, when those who followed the 
throng hastened 



238 IS IT LA WFUL TO RESIST? 

" To that admired solemnity, whose date, 
Tho' late begun, will last as long as fate ! " 

Mr. Byles describes the passage of the Charles River 
by ferry in a way that is quite amusing. He shows 
us the crowd from Boston waiting for the slow- 
approaching boat, into which 

" With impetuous haste they clustering pour ; 
The men the head, the stern the ladies grace, 
And neighing horses fill the middle space. 
Sunk deep, the boat floats slow the waves along. 
And scarce contains the thickly crowded throng ; 
A general horror seizes on the fair, . . . 
Till rowed with care, they reach the opposing side. 
Leap on the shore and leave the threatening tide. 
And now the time approaches when the bell 
With dull continuance tolls a solemn knell. 
Numbers of blooming youth in black array 
Adorn the yard and gladden all the day." 

In the rugged and monotonous verse we see the 
procession formed, the president at the head, fol- 
lowed by the senate, the clergy, the undergraduates, 
and the populace, until they enter the church, where 

" The work begun with prayer, with modest pace 
A youth advancing mounts the desk with grace, 
To all the audience sweeps a circling bow, 
Then from his lips ten thousand graces flow. 
The next that comes a learned thesis reads." 

We can readily imagine Adams " sweeping the 
circling bow " to the crowded audience at Cam- 
bridge, and dropping into their minds seeds that he 
desired to have spring up in the future. No man 
knew better how to time his utterances, and we may 



ADAMS EMBRACES AN OPPORTUNITY. 239 

be sure that it was not chance, nor the prescription 
of any tutor, that led him to take the particular 
subject that he discussed on this notable occasion. 
He knew that Cambridge would be crowded, that 
the audience would come from all the country 
around, that Boston would be w^ell represented, that 
the learned clergy would be present, that the hearers 
would be in a frame of mind adapted to receive 
what was told them without specially questioning it, 
and, above all, he knew that he was to address the 
young men upon whom the answer to the question 
was to depend a few years later. Perhaps James 
Otis, who was a member of the class, graduated that 
morning, heard the weighty words, and did not forget 
them. 





XVIII. 



TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 



More than a hundred years before this time, 
after the war with the Pequods, it seemed to some 
of the inhabitants of Boston that a mihtary organi- 
zation would be a good thing, and accordingly, in 
1637, certain men formed themselves into a company, 
which continues to this day, the oldest band of citi- 
zen soldiery in America. The organization was very 
informal at first. John Winthrop says, in his journal : 

" Divers gentlemen and others being joined in a mili- 
tary company desired to be made a corporation, but the 
council, considering from the example of the Praetorian 
Band among the Romans and the Templars in Europe, 
how dangerous it might be to erect a standing authority 
of military men, which might easily in time overtop the 
civil power, thought fit to stop it betimes ; yet thej^ were 
allowed to be a company, but subordinate to all authority." 

Accordingly, the " Military Company of the Mas- 
sachusetts " was formed, and Robert Keayne (who 
afterwards had the trouble with Mrs. Sherman and 
her pig) was captain. These persons had a formal 
charter authorizing them to choose of^cers, to as- 
semble and drill wherever they pleased, and to 

240 



" THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE." 24 1 

make laws for their own government ; it being 
specially stipulated that no officers should be put 
upon them but those of their own choice. One 
thousand acres of land were given them for the pay- 
ment of any charges they should be put to, and the 
first Monday of every month was set apart for their 
drill-day, no other training, or even town-meetings, 
being permitted on that day. Captain Keayne had 
been connected with the " Honourable Artillery 
Company " of JLondon, and, in course of time, this 
new organization was called the " Honourable " 
Artillery Company. In 1738, it was styled the 
"Honourable and Ancient Company;" since that 
time it has been known as the " Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery Company," and the last name has been 
confirmed by the Legislature. In 1770, this body 
stood forth in gold-laced hats, blue coats, buff under- 
clothes, silk stockings, and white-linen spatterdashes ; 
its days of parade were signalized by a drummer, 
who passed through the principal streets vigorously 
beating the rappel, and the company was assembled 
by the same martial sounds.* The election of its 
ofificers is a notable ceremony, and on the occasion 
there is still, as there was in the days of the fathers, an 
" Election Sermon." 

All men in Boston between the ages of sixteen and 
sixty were, in early times, required to belong to the 
militia, and the privates were provided with pikes, 
muskets, swords, bandoleers (pouches for powder 
and bullets), and a rest for use in taking aim ; while 

* " History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company," by 
Zacariah G. Whitman, Boston, 1842, p. 456. 



242 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

their bodies were sometimes protected by little 
cuirasses, and by coats quilted with cotton. These 
men were formed into train-bands, each of which 
counted not less than sixty-four, nor more than two 
hundred, members, and these, in turn, were distrib- 
uted into regiments, the governor being commander- 
in-chief. At stated times, the train-bands met for 
exercise, and there were prayers before and after the 
drill ; the whole business being entered upon and 
performed with the same religious earnestness that 
characterized all the doings of the Bostoneers of the 
olden time. Officers, when chosen, considered their 
elections cause for thanksgiving to God, and entered 
upon the discharge of their duties after solemn 
prayer. The people believed and said that " piety 
could not be maintained without church ordinances 
and officers, nor justice without laws and magistracy, 
no more can our safety and peace be preserved with- 
out military orders and officers," and that it was an 
equally solemn duty to support them all. Doubtless 
the trained soldiers of the regular armies of France 
and England, when they came in contact with these 
American militiamen in times of peace, felt some dis- 
dain for them ; but, when they met in war, they 
found to their dismay that the New Englanders, 
trained from early life to the use of the musket, and 
accustomed to desperate encounters with savage 
foes, were not wanting in courage nor in effective- 
ness, though they did not wear the gorgeous uniforms 
nor understand the intricate manoeuvres of older 
peoples. Probably the Boston company that did 
escort duty to the soldiers of La Tour, on that 



A BUSTLING AND SPIRITED GOVERNOR. 243 

training-day in 1643 when the Frenchmen were per- 
mitted to come ashore for purposes of exercise, were 
as much interested as the governor and magistrates 
were in the " variety of military movements " that 
the strangers went through ; and at other times, 
when English veterans came among the Bostonians, 
similar feelings must have been excited. 

The next royal governor, William Shirley, though 
a native of London, was practising law in Boston at 
the time of his appointment, May 16, 1741. He was 
well acquainted with the distracted condition of the 
colonial currency, and he knew also what difficulties 
his predecessor had encountered in managing His 
Majesty's affairs among an unsympathetic people. 
He served until 1756; but was absent from Boston 
four years of that time. He was much occupied by 
important movements in King George's War, which 
lasted from 1744 to 1748, and in the French and 
Indian War, so-called, which began two years before 
he left, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle having proved 
only a truce in the contest that was at the same 
period exciting Europe. Governor Shirley was a 
bustling and spirited military man, and took his 
share in actual warfare, besides giving his counsel to 
those who fought when he did not ; though he left 
the colony in a state of great depression, probably 
greater than that in which he found it. 

Three points demand notice in the career of Gov- 
ernor Shirley : first, the struggle for a salary ; next, 
the capture of Louisburg ; and lastly, the Albany 
Convention of 1754, called by the American gov- 
ernors, by advice of the English Board of Trade. 



244 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

The governor opened the dispute about the salary 
very promptly, and it ran through the usual stages, 
until, at last, both he and the ministry at home con- 
cluded that the colonists were only aggravated by 
pressing the matter and that it had better be dropped, 
especially since the cooperation of the colony was 
needed in war at the time. 

King George's War was declared in the early spring 
of 1744. By means of fast sailing vessels the news 
had reached the French at their strong fortress at 
Louisburg some time before it was known at Boston 
or by the English in America anywhere. Immediate 
advantage was taken of this early information, and 
an expedition was sent out which captured an Eng- 
lish garrison at Canso. It was an unfortunate ad- 
vantage, for it alarmed Boston and the rest of New 
England, and put them in the way of valuable infor- 
mation that might not otherwise have come into 
their possession. Some of the prisoners from Louis- 
burg found their way to Boston and told the author- 
ities just what they wished to know about the 
strength, but especially the weakness, of that cele- 
brated garrison. 

The French had occupied themselves for thirty 
years in building fortifications around Louisburg, 
and it was thought at this time that every point that 
an enemy could possibly approach was protected by 
the wall, which was of stone, from thirty to thirty-six 
feet high, guarded by a ditch eighty feet wide out- 
side of it. Two batteries commanded the entrance 
to the harbor. The position of Louisburg was very 
important to the French, for it was not only conve- 



A HARVARD MAN'S PLAN: 245 

nient to protect the St. Lawrence, but it was also a 
good place from which to send out expeditions to 
operate on the New England coast. There was at 
the time living at Damariscotta, Maine, a graduate 
of Harvard College, who was engaged in the fishing 
business, and therefore interested in whatever the 
French might do affecting the safety of vessels in 
that part of the Atlantic. He collected all the in- 
formation that he could about Louisburg, and then 
went to Boston to tell Governor Shirley what he 
had learned. The governor was also informed that 
in the winter the snow was piled up against the 
great walls in such a way that soldiers could easily 
climb over into the fortress, and that the garrison 
was badly provisioned and insubordinate. 

The court of Massachusetts had already been 
warned by the governor that it was necessary to 
prepare for a war, and the fact was well adapted to 
carry dismay among the members as they contem- 
plated the condition of the colonial finances ; but he 
amazed them now by bringing before them, under 
the seal of secrecy, a scheme for the capture of the 
" Gibraltar of America," as Louisburg was called. 
He told them all that he had learned from Vaughan 
and the escaped prisoners, and added that he had 
asked for a fleet from England to '' defend Annap- 
olis," and had written to Commodore Warren, then 
commanding the forces in the West Indies, asking 
him to take some of his vessels thither. The court 
was naturally astonished ; the proposition that Mas- 
sachusetts should send out an expedition against a 
place so well fortified was preposterous. The mat- 



246 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

ter was submitted to a committee, which reported 
that the undertaking was altogether beyond the 
power of the province, and that, if it were possible, 
there was not enough money in the treasury to per- 
mit of entering upon the project. The matter was 
dropped ; but one of the members, who referred to 
it in his domestic worship, in a moment of inadver- 
tency, was the means of bringing it again to public 
notice, upon which the people became excited about 
it. The governor, we may be sure, took no pains to 
allay the interest ; in fact, it is thought that he en- 
couraged it, and in consequence a petition was pre- 
sented to the court from merchants in Boston and 
elsewhere urging the undertaking of the enterprise. 
A committee now reported in favor of it, and the 
court approved the report by a single vote ; though 
even this majority would have been wiped out had 
one of the delegates not fallen and broken his leg 
when on his way to the meeting, where he intended 
to oppose the scheme. 

When the plan was once adopted it was entered 
upon with enthusiasm, and the citizens of Boston 
and the towns about vied with one another in mak- 
ing preparations. Business was dull ; seamen were 
unemployed ; provisions were abundant, thanks to a 
good harvest ; and when it was known that William 
Pepperell, of Kittery, had taken the position of com- 
mander of the expedition, grave deacons and justices 
of the peace presented themselves ready to officer 
the regiments ; while rich farmers, mechanics, and 
enthusiastic Protestants, desirous of wiping away 
the popish French from the northern region, volun- 



HO IV THEY TOOK LOUISBURG. 247 

teered to take places in the ranks. After a day of 
fasting and prayer the fleet started for its foolhardy 
enterprise in March, 1745. On the seventeenth of 
June the garrison surrendered, the victorious New 
Englanders marched in, and the Catholic chapel was 
occupied for religious worship by Protestants. The 
colonists were much elated by this success, which, 
however, was more creditable to their daring than to 
their judgment or their military skill. 

Governor Shirley had given directions that the 
fleet should sail through wintry seas, to a harbor 
that its pilots had not explored ; should meet after 
dark, effect a landing in spite of the surf, march 
three miles through woods and bogs, and then sim- 
ply scale the stone walls and take the place ! When 
the fortunes of war placed him inside of the fortress, 
Pepperell saw, of course, the futility of such wild 
plans as these. The joyful news reached Boston on 
the morning of the third of July, and the exultant 
populace kept holiday with earnestness that night 
did not repress. England showed the same jubilant 
symptoms, and Pepperell was made a baronet, being 
the first native American to receive that distinction. 
The colonists were lost to reason, and visionary 
plans were made for the capture of all Canada, plans 
which the British ministry deemed too grand, fearing 
that the conquest of a country so vast might give 
rise to too strong a sentiment of independence in 
the Americans. 

The colony paid the price of victory in a greatly 
increased public debt, and all institutions and persons 
that depended upon incomes found themselves in a 



248 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

condition of distress, for the currency depreciated 
anew to an alarming extent. Clergymen and officers 
employed by government felt the depreciation keenly, 
and the governor informed the court that many of 
the ministers would probably be forced to betake 
themselves to secular occupations for a livelihood.* 
Trade degenerated into barter, and sharp practices, 
which many felt necessary in order that they should 
increase their incomes to the utmost, threatened to 
make the whole body of the people corrupt. Parlia- 
ment at last came to the rescue and British gold 
was seen in Boston streets, sent over in settlement 
of an equitable claim which the ministry recognized 
on account of the efforts of the Americans in a 
common cause. The war had, indeed, been brought 
upon them rather by European complications than 
by any reason touching the needs of the colonies. 
It was four years, however, before the distress was 
alleviated. Then the financial troubles which had 
so long perplexed legislators and people were 
settled. In September, 1749, the money for this 
purpose arrived at the Boston wharves in hundreds 
of casks and chests, containing Spanish dollars 
and coins of copper. It is much to the credit of 
Thomas Hutchinson, then Speaker of the House, 
that through his efforts this coin was, with the ap- 

* The ministers were probably not all in this clanger. Some may 
have had the foresight of the Rev. Nicholas Gilman (H. C. 1724), 
who, when he was settled over a parish at Durham, N. H., made out 
" A Carnal Scheme," in which he put down in detail the supplies 
that were to be furnished him, especially stipulating that in case the 
currency should depreciate his nominal income should increase in the 
same ratio. " The Gilman Family," by Arthur Gilman, jiage 59. 



BOSTON INFLUENCES THE COLONIES. 249 

proval of the governor, set apart for the payment 
of the provincial bills, and that thus the embar- 
rassments of fifty years of paper money were done 
away, and for a quarter of a century afterwards 
Massachusetts was blessed with a solid medium of 
exchange. Rhode Island and Connecticut, which 
did not at this time reform their currency, felt a 
shock in their trade from which it took long to 
recover. 

We have now to notice the influence of Boston in 
the direction of self-government in the colonies in 
general. In the year 1690, when the news of the 
massacre at Schenectady reached the Bay, Governor 
Bradstreet urged upon the other colonies the neces- 
sity of providing immediately for common defense, 
and the general court of Massachusetts caused let- 
ters to be written to the governors inviting them to 
send delegates to a meeting to be held at New York. 
William Stoughton and Samuel Sewall of Boston 
were commissioned from Massachusetts, and in ac- 
cordance with the plan laid down by their governor 
they there met the others. On the first of May an 
agreement was signed to raise a force for the pur- 
pose, " by the help of Almighty God, of subduing 
the French and Indian enemies." This was the first 
time that the colonists had held a congress. The 
seed thus dropped (it was during the interval just 
after Andros had been banished from Boston) was 
destined to bear fruit nearly two generations after ; 
though there were to be important intermediate 
steps before a union could actually be formed. In 
1698 William Penn presented a plan for united 



250 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

action; and from time to time the different govern- 
ors met or sent delegates to meetings for consultation 
upon occasions of common danger. The people 
generally were slowly learning lessons of self-govern- 
ment ; but, singularly enough, it was not from them- 
selves but from the British ministry that the motion 
for a general congress next came. The Board of 
Trade invited a meeting, that was held at Albany, 
June 19, 1754, at which the delegates of most note 
were Thomas Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, and 
Benjamin Franklin, then of Philadelphia. Franklin 
and Shirley had discussed the subject of colonial 
union at Boston earlier in the year without coming 
to common ground, and Franklin had published in 
his paper* a rough picture of a snake cut into thir- 
teen pieces, accompanied by the motto: " Unite or 
die ! " No plan presented at Albany found general 
acceptance, the delegates being too positively di- 
vided between prerogative men and independents, f 
and the subject was dropped for the time. 

In I755> Governor Shirley, the most prominent 
political character in the colonies, met a number of 
royal governors at Alexandria, and with General 

* The press was now becoming very important in American history. 
It dropped its fresh intelligence and its stirring appeals into a thou- 
sand minds at the same moment, and gave the same impulse to each 
of the thousand. We shall see with what eminent skill it was used 
by Samuel Adams and those who knew its power in the preliminary 
stages of the Revolution. 

■j-The origin of the two parties, patriots and prerogative men, is 
dated from 1683, and the controversy between them did not end until 
America was free from Britain. There had been the same difference 
in earlier times between those who stood for all the privileges of the 
charter and those who sided with the king and Parliament. 



252 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

Braddock, then commander-in-chief of His Majesty's 
forces, planned the quadruple scheme for the con- 
quest of the French by campaigns respectively 
against Ohio and the Northwest, Crown Point, Fort 
Niagara, and Nova Scotia, — for Louisburg and the 
region about had been restored to France by the 
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, In putting this great 
scheme into practice, Braddock was defeated and 
killed ; Shirley failed at Niagara ; John Winslow, of 
Boston, effected the pitiful carrying away of the poor 
Acadians ; and Sir William Johnson accomplished 
nothing at Crown Point. Shirley, who had become 
commander-in-chief upon the death of Braddock, was 
superseded after his disastrous campaign, and was 
recalled to England in the autumn of 1756. When 
Louisburg had been acquired, it was necessary to 
protect it, and as a very large number of soldiers had 
died there, in consequence of a severe winter, Gov- 
ernor Shirley " impressed " such seamen as he could 
find on the Boston wharves, and sent them, much 
against their will, down to the dreary land of colds 
and disease. This simply irritated the people ; but 
when the testy Commodore Knowles, who had co- 
operated with Pepperell, arrived in the harbor and 
proceeded to fill the places of some deserters by 
carrying away mariners from the vessels moored at 
the wharves and men peacefully at work building 
ships, he threw the citizens into a flame of anger. 
Boston was not familiar, as London was, with this 
hard and arbitrary custom, and the bereaved families 
of the impressed men cried to the court, which con- 
vened that day, for revenge. The mob armed them- 



IMPRESSMENTS CAUSE IRRITATION. 253 

selves with sticks and clubs and pitch-mops, and, in 
their rage, caught an innocent lieutenant, who hap- 
pened to be ashore, and threatened him with 
vengeance. They surrounded Governor Shirley's 
dwelling, where it was said that some officers were ; 
they filled the yard ; they seized a sheriff who tried 
to calm them, and carried him off to the stocks, 
where he furnished them a little merriment, and put 
them in a frame of mind more ready for dinner than 
for blood. When dusk fell upon the town, another 
crowd of several thousand persons gathered about 
the town-house ; bricks and stones were thrown 
through the windows into the apartment in which 
the council was sitting, and quiet was not restored 
until the governor appeared at a balcony and ex- 
pressed his disapproval of the impressment, and his 
intention to obtain the freedom of the men that had 
been arrested. The mob demanded the seizure and 
restraint of the officers in town, and the governor 
was so much alarmed that he retired to his house, 
where the mob soon appeared with a boat, supposed 
to belong to one of the ships, and proposed to burn 
it on the spot. On consideration of the danger to the 
town, this boat, which proved to belong to quite 
a different vessel, was burned elsewhere. The gov- 
ernor retreated to the Castle for safety ; Commodore 
Knowles, in his blunt and reckless fashion, threat- 
ened to bombard the town ; and Captain Erskine, of 
the Canterbury, and other officers were arrested by 
the authorities. The military was aroused by Shir- 
ley, and Boston was thronged with men from Cam- 
bridge, Roxbury, and other towns, many of whom 



254 TESTED AND NOT FOUND WANTING. 

had never carried a gun. The governor was escorted 
by them to his house with great parade, the people 
having expressed in town-meeting at once their sense 
of their insuhs and injuries, and their desire that 
tumultuous and riotous acts should be stopped. The 
House also indicated its determination to stand by 
the governor, and to make exertions to have the 
wrongs redressed. The upshot of the tempest, 
which was indeed very threatening, was that the 
irascible Knowles released most of those whom he 
had impressed, and sailed out to sea, greatly to the 
relief of Boston. 

Governor Shirley is to be remembered for another 
reason. At the beginning of the year 1752, one 
Charles Paxton, a native of America, was commis- 
sioned as Surveyor of the Port of Boston. He was a 
man of energy, who had obtained his office by pur- 
chase, for the purpose of making his fortune. The 
officers of the crown at the time openly allowed 
smuggling, and a large trade had grown up, in con- 
travention of the Molasses Law, or Sugar Law, as it 
was indifferently called, which (1733) laid a duty on 
molasses, sugar, rum, etc. This law was felt to 
be so unnatural, that scarcely any attempts had been 
made to carry it into execution,* and officers of His 
Majesty's customs service accumulated fortunes by 
conniving at the importation of contraband goods, 
dividing the ill-gotten gain with their English 
patrons, to whom they were indebted for the oppor- 
tunity of wrenching it from the merchants. The 

* See "The Rise of the Republic," by Richard Frothingham, 
page 163. 



GENERAL WARRANTS GIVE TROUBLE. 255 

independent people were indignant at the thought 
that England, supposed to be bankrupted by its late 
heavy war with France, was determined to make 
America pay a part of her indebtedness. The cus- 
toms ofificers aroused them still more by demanding 
of Governor Shirley general warrants, authorizing 
them to enter any house, shop, cellar, warehouse, 
room, or other place in which they might suspect 
prohibited goods would be found, and, in case of re- 
sistance, to break open doors, chests, trunks, or other 
packages, and take the goods to His Majesty's ware- 
house for examination. Hutchinson considered it 
extraordinary that Shirley, who was a lawyer by 
education and a man of sense, should have given 
such authority, and expressed the belief that the 
writs had no legal value. When Shirley learned (in 
1752) that his warrants were pronounced illegal, he 
discontinued them ; but they were issued by the 
Superior Court, on application of the revenue officers. 
This, Judge Sewall thought, was also illegal, though 
it was not disputed that the court might issue a 
warrant authorizing search of a particular place 
mentioned, in which there was ground to suppose 
contraband goods were to be found. The " general" 
character was objected to. These warrants were 
similar to the writs of assistance issued by the Eng- 
lish Court of Exchequer, and their legality was ac- 
cepted in the mother-country. Much more irritation 
was caused by them a little later in Boston. 



XIX. 



A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 



When Samuel Adams left college he began to 
prepare himself to practise law ; but he soon turned 
to commerce and entered the counting-room of a 
prominent merchant, though he had no taste for 
trade. Leaving this pursuit in turn, he began busi- 
ness for himself upon money given him by his father, 
all of which he managed to lose, and then he joined 
his father in carrying on a malt-house on Purchase 
Street. He was a young man of twenty-three when 
the triumphant soldiers from Louisburg brought 
home the iron cross* which they wrenched from the 
chapel in that stronghold, and when the tumultuous 
crowds in Boston's streets celebrated the victory 
probably no one rejoiced more heartily than he. 
His father was prominent in all public affairs, and 
was a member of the military committees of the 
legislature, while the son, though looked upon as a 
thriftless person, was making himself felt in the 
clubs and the newspapers. Three years after the 
victory the father died, and the following year the 

* This cross, freshly gilded, now stands over the principal entrance 
to the Library of Harvard University. 

256 




JOHN HANCOCK, 
After the Portrait by Copley in the Museum of Fine Arts (1737-1793). 



258 A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

son married and settled down in Purchase Street, 
nominally to attend to the malt-house. 

At the time of the Louisburg rejoicings a younger 
man, James Otis, who had graduated at Harvard the 
year that Adams took his second degree, began also 
to study law, and he did not, like Adams, give it up. 
He began to practise at Plymouth in due time, and 
he was laboring there in his vocation at the time 
that Adams married. Younger than either of these 
men^ — fifteen years younger than Adams — there 
was John Hancock, just ready to enter Harvard 
College, in 1749, whose home was in Ouincy. He 
was destined, a little later, to be identified with the 
contest in which both Adams and Otis were soon to 
be engaged, and by his considerable inherited wealth 
to serve it effectively. 

Thomas Pownall, the next royal governor, reached 
Boston in August, 1757, while the last French and 
Indian War was in progress, at a time when Boston 
was stirred by news of the capture of Fort William 
Henry under circumstances of barbarity which spread 
dismay throughout all the northern provinces, and 
especially gave pain to Boston, because many of the 
troops had been sent from that place. There was a 
general feeling of despair, and this was intensified 
when the governor received a letter from Captain 
Christie, in command at Albany, dated August loth 
and nth, couched in these frantic terms: "For 
God's sake exert yourselves to save a province ; New 
York itself may fall ; save a country ; prevent the 
downfall of the British government upon this conti- 
nent ! " This letter was well calculated to spread 



THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE. 259 

alarm, and, in fact, all Massachusetts was aroused, 
for it was thought that there would be a prompt 
advance upon both New York and the Bay State. 
Twenty thousand militiamen were soon under arms 
under command of Pepperell. The fortunes of the 
war are not the subject of these pages ; suf^ce it to 
say that Louisburg, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, 
Quebec, and Montreal were all taken by 1760, and 
that there was great rejoicing in Boston. In cele- 
brating the fall of Quebec forty-five tar barrels, two 
cords of wood, and fifty pounds of powder, besides 
other combustibles, were burned on Copp's Hill. 
The Peace of Paris, in 1763, marked the close of the 
French and Indian wars, which, for nearly fourscore 
years, had filled the land with horror, and made the 
settlers on the frontiers and in many a Nev/ England 
hamlet familiar with savage butchery. 

It was the good-fortune of Governor Pownall to 
arrive in Boston at the time of distress, when all 
minor matters were forgotten in thoughts of the 
necessities of self-preservation, and to leave when 
the successes at the close of the long struggle with 
France made it certain that the colonists were no 
longer to be menaced by that enemy, and that her 
dominion was soon to be extinguished on the conti- 
nent. The people were, however, uneasy, and ready 
to magnify every act that could possibly be con- 
strued as antagonistic to their interests, and to with- 
stand the execution of any scheme that could be 
made to appear as a contravention of their rights 
and privileges as British subjects living under a 
charter government. 



26o A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

When Shirley had been relieved of the command 
of His Majesty's forces in America, the commission 
was given to Lord Loudoun, and soon after Governor 
Pownall came to his of^ce there arose a conflict be- 
tween this officer and the Massachusetts legislature. 
Lord Loudoun sent soldiers to Boston, and the ofificers 
called upon the justices to allow them to be quar- 
tered on the inhabitants, according to the terms of 
an act of parliament. The justices refused ; Lord 
Loudoun became furious, and threatened ; but all to 
no purpose, the general court insisted that the act of 
Parliament did not affect the colonies, and, after a 
short but fierce quarrel, the court came off victorious. 
The troops were quartered at the Castle, and not 
long afterwards Lord Loudoun was relieved of his 
command, though not until another angry quarrel 
seemed imminent between him and the court. 

It was evident that the strong sentiment of loyalty, 
which Cotton Mather said was felt in Boston in 1726, 
had become much weakened by August, 1760, when 
Francis Bernard arrived, though as the commissioned 
governor he was received with respectful parade and 
due ceremony. Governor Pownall, who was a man 
of intelligence and cultivation, had, during his short 
administration, made himself very pleasing to most 
of the inhabitants of Boston and of the colony, and, 
when he went away he carried with him a mass of 
information in regard to the province, which he used 
in writing works on the subject. From 1768 to 
1780 he was a member of parliament, and in that 
position he uttered warnings against the measures 
opposed to the interests of the Americans, and fore- 



GOVERNOR POWN ALL'S SAGACITY. 261 

told the fact that our country was destined to take 
its place among the nations, a prophecy which, as he 
lived until 1805, he saw fulfilled. Of all the Eng- 
lishmen who held that the Americans had rights 
that ought to be respected, Pownall was the most 
clear and definite in his views and in his expressions. 
He was the first person to call American citizens 
" sovereigns," and though Governor Shirley thought 
that centuries would pass before the Americans 
would " grow restive, and disposed to throw off their 
dependency upon their mother-country," Pownall 
saw the great possibilities of the New World, and 
prophesied that the Americans were soon to be an 
independent sovereign people, with which it would 
be well for England to make sure of friendly- rela- 
tions. He expressed high hopes for the "liberties 
of America," and for the country itself, which he 
thought would be " an asylum one day or another to 
a remnant of mankind who wish and deserve to live 
with political liberty." 

Governor Hutchinson says in his history that 
speculative men had figured in their minds " an 
American empire," but that they placed it at such a 
distant age that, like Governor Shirley, they did not 
think that any one then living could expect to see it. 
In this respect Governor Pownall was far in advance 
of his English contemporaries, and comparatively 
few in America even were, up to this time, able to 
discern with like distinctness the trend of affairs. It 
soon became apparent, however. The antagonism 
that had long been strengthening between the Bos- 
tonians and the officers of the crown began to show 



2^2 A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

itself in the language of the town, for those who 
were attached to the principles of the house of 
Hanover, who approved the views of the ancient 
whigs, and felt that the revolution which brought 
William and Mary to the throne was a benefit to the 
people of England and America, were called whigs, 
while the small number, comprising the of^cers of 
the king and those who supported them and the 
royal prerogative against the " rights of the people," 
were branded as tories. The mass of the inhabi- 
tants of Boston, and of the entire colony in fact, 
looked upon the English whigs as right, and consid- 
ered a tory to be a sympathizer with despotism and 
wrong. 

While this feeling was rising in Boston, Mr. Adams 
was by no means a silent observer of the progress of 
events. He saw that a storm was coming, and felt 
that a responsibility rested upon every American to 
stand for the right as he saw it. His speech, on tak- 
ing his second degree at Cambridge, has already been 
referred to ; it was but a part of a methodical scheme 
of action that he had marked out for himself. He 
plainly saw that the state must look to her educated 
young men for direction and support in the coming 
erriergency, and he took every favorable opportunity 
to lay his views before such youth of parts as he 
could find. Among the young men whom Adams 
thus brought out to help his cause, were Otis and 
Hancock, who have been already mentioned, besides 
John Adams, of Quincy, afterwards President of the 
United States; Dr. Joseph Warren, afterwards ma- 
jor-general of the colonial militia, and martyr at 



THE GREAT WIRE-PULLER. 263 

Bunker Hill ; Josiah Quincy, called by John Adams 
"the Boston Cicero," a man of marked moral cour- 
age, who wrote vigorous essays against the British 
ministry, and stirred the Bostonians by his powerful 
eloquence ; and Benjamin Church, who, though he 
proved recreant to the American cause afterwards, 
was perhaps as active and popular before his defec- 
tion as either Hancock or Warren, or even as Adams 
him.self. Adams did not make himself unduly promi- 
nent, but put forward one or another of those upon 
whom he trusted, as from time to time he saw 
that their peculiar qualifications made their services 
useful. 

It was not only in this way that Adams urged his 
cause. He became a constant and vigorous contrib- 
utor to the newspapers of the day, and for fifty years 
Principiis Obsta, A Religious Politician, Valerius Pop- 
licola, V index, Candidus, An American, A Son of 
Liberty, Alfred, Sincerus, Cedant Anna Toga, A 
Layman, Determinatus, Populus, A Bostonian, even 
A Chatterer, or A Tory, were the ostensible authors 
of the sarcastic, sharp, forcible, patriotic, argumenta- 
tive, indignant papers that his hand wrote, often by 
the light of the candle that passers-by found burning 
in his library window late in the night. Nor did 
Mr. Adams stop with this wonderfully prolific pub- 
lic correspondence. As early as 1747, during the 
time of Governor Shirley, he formed a club with 
some of his political friends, (" ardent young rebels," 
Hudson, the historian of American journalism, calls 
them,) the object of which was to present to the peo- 
ple essays on public affairs, every one of which 



264 A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

should, of course, strengthen the cause that they 
had at heart. The Independent Advertiser, printed 
by Rogers & Fowle, became the medium through 
which these essays saw the light. It began its ca- 
reer January 4, 1748. For some time this pioneer 
revolutionary paper managed to avoid collision with 
the authorities, but it was not at the expense of con- 
sistency, or by holding back one whit of the truth 
about the nature of loyalty or the rights of freemen, 
as its supporters held them. Isaiah Thomas, who 
was a well-known printer in Boston a few years later, 
said that the club which supported the Independent 
Advertiser was composed of whigs who " advocated 
the rights of the people against those measures of 
government which were supposed to infringe upon 
the privileges of the province secured by charter." 

We can scarcely imagine with what avidity this 
little sheet was welcomed as it presented itself each 
week with its roughly engraved embellishment at 
the head of columns that contained a few items of 
foreign and domestic news, accompanied by a strong 
dose of argument for loyalty and against sedition, in 
favor of " liberty," and against any form of govern- 
ment that did not provide for the representation of 
the people. The readers were assured that, as no 
man ought to be abridged of his liberty, so also no 
one had the " right to give up or even part with any 
portion of it " ; that multitudes of persons have not 
even the vestige of such liberty, " but hold their 
property and even their lives by no other tenure 
than the sovereign will of a tyrant, and he often the 
worst and most detestable of men " ; and that " our 



WHA T ADAMS MEDITA TED. 265 

invaluable charter secures to us all the English lib- 
erties, besides which we have some additional privi- 
leges which the common people there [in England] 
have not." True loyalty, the club informs its read- 
ers, cannot subsist in an arbitrary government, its 
object being a " good legal constitution," which con- 
demns oppression and lawless power, and allows the 
sufferer to " remonstrate his grievances," and points 
out "methods of relief when the gentle arts of per- 
suasion have lost their efficacy'' Finally the Adver- 
tiser included ad captandiim arguments, as, for exam- 
ple, when it said that he who " despises his neigh- 
bor's happiness because he wears a worsted cap or 
leathern apron, he that struts immeasurably above 
the lower size of people and pretends to adjust the 
rights of men by the distinctions of fortune, is not 
over loyal." No doubt that Adams at least was at 
this time meditating a separation of the colonies 
from England, and the suggestion that other argu- 
ments than the " gentle arts of persuasion " might 
be used seems to indicate that he was ready to apply 
them in case of necessity, and that he was intention- 
ally preparing men's minds to agree with him when 
the time for action should arrive. 

Opposed to this little band of Bostonians stood 
the governor, Bernard, and his lieutenant, Thomas 
Hutchinson, both dependent upon the crown, and 
not representatives of the people whom they gov- 
erned, though Hutchinson was probably attached to 
the land of his birth. He was a descendant of Anne 
Hutchinson, who had been so severely dealt with by 
the Bostonians in the time of Winthrop, was polite 



266 A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

and intelligent, and, at a previous period, quite pop- 
ular with the people. He wrote a history of the 
province, in three volumes, which is remarkable for 
the self-restraint that it shows, for Hutchinson was 
called upon to bear much treatment that must have 
appeared extremely harsh to him. Both the gov- 
ernor and his lieutenant were greedy of office for the 
wealth that they expected to derive from it, and 
this was not adapted to beget in them traits that 
would commend them to the colonists. Besides 
being lieutenant-governor, Hutchinson held the office 
of governor of the Castle, was a member of the 
Council, and judge of Probate, and finally took the 
office of chief-justice, thus combining legislative, ex- 
ecutive, and judicial functions in a way that was 
considered incongruous and monstrous. Mr. Otis 
severely criticised Hutchinson for this, and said that 
it was a fundamental maxim that the legislative and 
judicial powers should be kept separate ; asserting 
that when they are combined in one person the 
government is hastening" fast to ruin, and its mis- 
chief and miseries are apt to be " as bad as those 
felt in the most absolute monarchy." 

It happened that James Otis, of the group that 
sympathized with Adams, was the one first to come 
into conflict with Bernard and Hutchinson. He was 
a person of fiery temper, sensitive nature, and fitful 
passions ; he lacked the caution and cool calculation 
of Adams, and he was so poorly balanced that his 
mind soon gave way under the strain of the exciting 
times. Incapable of malice, his sympathetic nature 
caught the enthusiasm of the circle in which he 




(I725-I783-) AT THE AGE OF THIRTY. 
After a portrait by Blackburn. 

267 



268 A MALSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

happened to be ; and he sometimes took up a cause 
of which he repented, which made his course appear 
at times irresolute and contradictory. In 1761 Mr. 
Otis was employed by some Boston merchants, who 
had been affected by forfeitures under the Molasses 
Act, to which reference has been made in a former 
chapter, to appear for them in a trial brought for the 
purpose of settling the question whether the provin- 
cial treasurer might not demand the money that had 
accrued to the colony from fines collected under that 
act. The effort of Mr. Otis was successful, and he 
was soon after engaged in a much more important 
cause. The legality of the writs of assistance had 
been called in question, and the matter was now to 
come before the court for decision. James Otis then 
held the profitable office of advocate-general, and it 
was his duty to support the cause of the customs 
officers ; but he believed the writs to be illegal and 
" tyrannical," and promptly resigned, to argue the 
cause of the suffering merchants, though it must be 
confessed that these merchants had themselves been 
doubtless guilty of infringing the letter of the law 
in their illicit importations. 

The now famous trial came on in February, 1761, 
in the council-chamber of the old town-house of 
Boston. This was an imposing and elegant apart- 
ment at the east end of the building, ornamented 
with fine full-length portraits of Charles the Second 
and James the Second. Hutchinson, who had just 
been made chief-justice, presided, and there were 
four associate-judges, in great wigs, their persons 
adorned with scarlet robes and broad bands ; while 



OTIS AGAINST THE WRITS. 269 

about them were the chief citizens and the officers 
of the crown, all of whom were very anxious to hear 
the arguments on the subject, for everybody felt the 
importance of the occasion. The case was opened 
by Jeremiah Gridley, who was king's attorney. He 
had been the instructor of Otis in his younger days, 
and the pupil now treated him with respect and 
esteem, almost with affection, while, as John Adams 
says, with some exaggeration, he " confounded all 
his authorities, confuted all his arguments, and re- 
duced him to silence." 

Otis began by saying that he had been asked to 
examine the subject of writs of assistance ; that he 
had done so ; and that the result was that he had 
determined to oppose, with all the powers and facul- 
ties that God had given him, every such instrument 
" of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the 
other." He explained his resignation of public of- 
fice because he could not conscientiously uphold the 
cause that his official oath would have obliged him 
to support, and added that " the only principles of 
public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a 
man are to sacrifice ease, health, and applause, and 
even life, to the sacred calls of his country." After 
this preamble he went on to consider the rights of 
man in a state of nature, the rights of British sub- 
jects to representation, external and internal taxes, 
the acts of trade, the navigation act, and the writs 
of assistance, as designed to enforce the acts of 
trade. He described the tyranny of taxation with- 
out representation, and in treating this branch of his 
theme gave full scope to his powerful talent for 



270 A MALTSTER ENTERS POL/ TICS. 

declamation and invective. He emphasized the 
maxim that every Englishman's house is his castle, 
and showed how the writs made it possible for cus- 
tom-house officers and their menials to destroy this 
most essential branch of British liberty — the freedom 
of one's home ; and at last he argued that the writs 
were not consistent with the colonial charter. He 
closed his speech of five hours with a reproach of the 
nation, the parliament, and the king for their " injus- 
tice, illiberality, ingratitude, and oppression " of the 
Americans, in a style of oratory that John Adams, 
who was an attentive listener, declares he never 
heard equalled in this or any other country. 

At the end of the term, Hutchinson declared that 
the court was not satisfied of the legality of the 
writs, but that, in order to learn the practice in Eng- 
land, it was thought best to continue the question 
until the next term. The next term came in Novem- 
ber, 1 76 1, and the legality of the writs was sustained, 
whereupon the general court reduced the annual 
appropriation for the judges, of whom Hutchinson 
was the chief. Upon the opening of the legislature. 
Governor Bernard recommended the members to 
" give no attention to declamations tending to pro- 
mote a suspicion of the civil rights of the people 
being in danger." Mr. Otis had just been elected a 
member, and it was thought that these words were 
aimed at him ; the representatives therefore replied 
that they would give due weight to the words of the 
governor, but that it was their intention to see for 
themselves, and that in fact they did not observe any 
cause for suspicion. They considered the governor's 



AN UNWARRANTED OUTLAY. 271 

communication highly indecent and improper ; but 
they restrained their feelings and replied in words of 
calm good judgment. Otis had now put himself 
forward, and was recognized as, " the great incen- 
diary of New England," though Samuel Adams was 
standing by pouring oil on the flames that it may be 
said he himself had kindled. 

In the summer of 1762, Governor Bernard, with 
the approval of the council, took the liberty, during 
a recess in the sessions of the legislature, to expend 
a comparatively trifling sum in fitting out a vessel 
to quiet the fears of the Boston merchants, who 
were alarmed lest the French should make advances 
upon the fisheries. The jealousy of the opponents 
of the administration led to a remonstrance against 
the governor's unwarranted outlay, by a committee 
of the legislature, of which Otis was chairman. In 
this it was said that " no necessity can be sufficient 
to justify the House of Representatives in giving up 
such a privilege ; for it would be of little conse- 
quence to the people whether they were subject to 
George or Lewis, the king of Great Britain or the 
French king, if both were arbitrary, as both would 
be, if both could levy taxes without a parliament." 
When this passage was read, a member cried out, 
" Treason ! treason ! " and there was an excitement 
similar to that which occurred in the Virginia House 
of Burgesses three years later, when Patrick Henry 
uttered his memorable words of similar import. The 
representatives were unreasonably sensitive, and the 
governor was clearly injudicious in stickling for the 
royal prerogative. The times demanded calm con- 



2/2 A MALTSTER ENTERS POLITICS. 

sideration of the proprieties and necessities of the 
case, and this neither Bernard nor Otis was prepared 
to offer. Otis, indeed, at the request of the court, 
but without waiting for its approval, pubhshed " A 
Vindication of the House," in which he argued with 
quaint extravagance that the punctiHousness of the 
representatives was warranted, and laid down a series 
of political maxims in some respects similar to the 
arguments used by Franklin against Governor Shirley 
in 1754. " This production," according to Dr. Snow, 
" has been considered the original source from which 
all subsequent arguments against taxation were de- 
rived."* Otis asserted that God had made all men 
naturally equal ; that kings were made for the good 
of the people, and not the people for them ; that no 
government had the right to make " hobby-horses, 
asses, and slaves " of its subjects, nature having 
made enough of the two former, and none of the 
latter, which proves them unnecessary; and he ridi- 
culed the governor's sensitiveness, while he applauded 
warmly all outspoken and bold resistance to " every 
sort and degree of usurped power." At the same 
time he declared that plain English when used in 
complaints of grievances was not dangerous to 
the province. 

* " History of Boston," p. 253. 




XX. 



BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

The plantations now engaged almost the whole 
thoughts of men in power in England, and of the 
places that were carefully watched Boston stood 
first. It was looked upon with truth as a centre of 
discussion, and as a community that would not fail 
to act when the time came for action. The people 
of Boston were watchful, too, and among those who 
were jealously marked by the " friends of freedom,'' 
the members of the Church of England were promi- 
nent ; for every officer of the king, from the highest 
down, was presumably a member of that body, and 
suspected of intriguing for its establishment in the 
New World. The discussion of taxation was min- 
gled with more or less violent debates on the subject 
of the Establishment, and in 1763 these grew more 
exciting than ever. Then the Reverend Mr. East 
Apthorp, rector of Christ Church, Cambridge, who 
was said to be " hot from Oxford," discussed the 
purposes of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, arguing that a portion of its 
duty was to give the " British subjects on this vast 
continent the means of public religion," whereas the 
conversion of the Indians seemed to be the sole ob- 

273 



274 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

ject aimed at by its conductors. The mere sugges- 
tion that there was a society, a part of the object of 
which was to supplant the form of rehgion estab- 
lished by the founders of the colony, and to bring 
in a sort of worship that the fathers had opposed, 
aroused an active spirit of discussion, which before 
it ended involved all denominations in America, and 
brought forward the then aged Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
and others in Europe. It was thought that if parlia- 
ment could tax the colonies, it had power to estab- 
lish the Episcopal form of worship, and thus the 
question became one of religion as well as of politics. 
The two subjects were united also by Dr. Jonathan 
Mayhew of the West Church, one of the most out- 
spoken preachers of civil liberty, who denied that 
parliament had any control over religion in Massa- 
chusetts, arguing that the charter conferred absolute 
authority in such matters upon the colonists. Dr. 
Mayhew, then a young man, had in 1750 delivered a 
discourse on the Sunday following the anniversary 
of the execution of " King Charles, the Martyr," as 
he was still called in the Prayer-Book, in which he 
discussed " unlimited submission and non-resistance 
to the higher powers, with some reflections on the 
resistance made to King Charles the First," in much 
the same spirit that Samuel Adams had shown seven 
years before on the platform at Cambridge, boldly 
and eloquently declaring the principle of free civil 
government. It has been called " the morning gun 
of the Revolution." 

All Boston was soon engaged in a fervent discus- 
sion of topics of this sort, and opinions were formed 



THE EXASPERATING BOSTONIANS. 2/5 

and principles established, which afterwards united the 
citizens firmly upon the basis of entire independence 
of the mother-country. It is often said that the 
colonists did not desire this political independence ; 
that they loved England and rejoiced in her pros- 
perity ; and that they submitted with docility to 
gross abuses and high-handed political measures in 
a way that proves this statement. One cannot read 
the history of Boston from the time of Winthrop to 
the days of Samuel Adams without seeing that the 
same spirit filled the hearts and controlled the actions 
of her citizens from first to last. Doubtless they all 
had the interest in England's past that is still felt 
by enlightened Americans ; doubtless they were 
long-suffering, and wished to keep the peace ; but 
there can be no mistake in asserting that their 
actions were exasperating to the kings and their 
ministers, and that they asserted themselves and 
claimed their assumed rights under the charters in a 
way which made it unmistakable that nothing less 
than practical independence would ever give them 
satisfaction. The only wonder is that the supreme 
contest was not precipitated sooner than it was ; and 
the only explanation of the anomaly is found in the 
fact that the sovereigns were so much occupied at 
one time and another with matters of deep signifi- 
cance at home that it was impracticable for them to 
deal with their rampant Boston subjects in the 
strong manner that their case required. The 
" causes " of the American Revolution generally 
given would not have been sufificient to produce 
that great upturning, had they not been preceded 



2/6 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

by years and years of struggle, which had finally 
brought the contestants to a point at which each 
was unyielding. 

In spite of these facts, it required all the unrivalled 
skill of Samuel Adams in managing men to keep the 
freemen of Boston up to the pitch of daring indigna- 
tion and rebellion that he thought necessary for his 
purposes ; and it may be reasonably doubted if there 
would have ever been any independence if he had 
not labored in season and out of season, openly and 
in secret, by himself and through others, in the town 
and the colony, and in the other colonies, for the at- 
tainment of an end that he had determined in the 
councils of his own tenacious will should be accom- 
plished. It was he who years before dropped the 
seed into the minds of educated youth ; he harangued 
the populace ; he counselled the clubs in secret ; he 
faced the king's officers in their strength ; he mocked 
them and taunted them ; he elevated a street riot 
into a " Massacre," and caused it to be celebrated 
year after year; he devoted himself without reserve 
to the accomplishment of his purpose, indifferent 
alike to poverty and pleasure, daring proscription 
and death ; he succeeded, and his name will always 
remain on the tablets of history as the Father of the 
American Revolution. 

In arguing against the writs of assistance, Otis had 
declared that taxation without representation is tyr- 
anny ; not that any Bostonian desired representa- 
tion in the British parliament, for that was wellnigh 
impracticable ; but no one was willing to bear tax- 
ation for the purpose of replenishing an exhausted 



WHAT GALLED THE COLONLSTS. 2']'] 

treasury on the other side of the ocean. Adams 
argued at length at another time against the pro- 
priety of levying taxes for the government and 
defence of the regions that had been acquired in 
America from France. He urged that the colonists 
had already incurred debts in the war, which was 
rather for the increase of British trade than for the 
sake of affording stability and security to the Ameri- 
can governments, and that England had the whole 
advantage of the new commerce. The national debt 
had increased to one hundred and forty million 
pounds, or more than sixty million pounds in one 
year — the last of the war, and it was to make the 
home burdens easier that the American tax was 
laid. This was the feature that galled the colonists.* 
When, therefore, in 1764, it was known in Boston 
that a stamp tax was to be laid upon the colonies, 
that stamps were to be obligatory upon all legal and 
business documents, that offenders against the new 
law under which it was laid were not to have the 
privilege of trial by jury, and that the policy was to 
be enforced as asserting the right of England to obe- 
dience, Boston, as well as other centres, was dis- 
turbed by heated discussions of the relations between 
the mother-country and the colonies. In May Bos- 

* It was all the more galling because the taxes were already extrav- 
agant. Dr. Gordon relates that some time before this date a Boston 
gentleman of fortune sent his tax bills to London for comparison 
with such rates there. His correspondent replied that he did not be- 
lieve there was a man in all England who paid so much in proportion 
to the support of the government. A man was actually obliged to pay 
in taxes two thirds of his income, beside the excise on tea, coffee, 
rum and wine. — " American Revolution," vol. i., page 110. 



.278 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

ton instructed her representatives in the general 
court to maintain the rights of the province under 
the charter and the rights of the citizens as free-born 
subjects of Great Britain, by preventing the proposed 
proceedings against the colonies. The important 
paper in which these instructions were conveyed, 
drawn up by Samuel Adams, contains the first pub- 
lic denial of the right of parliament to tax America, 
and the first suggestion of a union of all the colonies 
for mutual protection, and an intimation that if the 
burdens were not removed, the Americans would re- 
taliate upon English manufacturers by entering into 
agreements to import none of their goods. It would 
be difficult to mention any paper in the history of 
our country that proved so momentous in its conse- 
quences as this, the first public document that re- 
mains in the handwriting of its author. It was 
immediately published, and accepted as expressing 
the sentiments of Boston, and of Massachusetts, and 
it became the basis of the public policy of the prov- 
ince. A year later Patrick Henry wrote on the 
blank leaf of a law book the now celebrated " Vir- 
ginia Resolves," as they are called, in which he took 
the same ground, asserting that obedience was not 
due to a law imposing a tax unless it had been sanc- 
tioned by the representatives of the people, and the 
principle was accepted by the colonies in general. 
The idea struck off by the sagacious Boston patriot 
became the keynote of the Revolution. 

In all of the acts of these stirring times Adams was 
supported by James Otis with his impetuous and un- 
restrained eloquence ; and by Oxenbridge Thacher, 



A COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 279 

the calm and business-like defender of colonial rights, 
who stood in the confidence of the men of Boston as 
high as any other of her patriotic citizens. When 
the legislature met in June, it was Otis who pre- 
pared a memorial to be sent to the Massachusetts 
agent in England, following almost the very words 
of Samuel Adams, and it was he who published a 
treatise on the rights of the colonies, though he 
made the usual assertion that independence was not 
the aim of the Americans. It is difficult to follow 
the line of argument by which the patriots discrimi- 
nated between their determination not to submit to 
certain acts of parliament, and their reservation of 
sovereign rights to themselves, and their disclaimers 
of all desire to free themselves from the authority of 
the king. That they were honest, we must allow ; 
but we must also think that they imperfectly com- 
prehended the meaning of their acts, and the real 
desire for complete independence that they harbored 
in their hearts. Doubtless they thought that they 
would " choose subjection to Great Britain upon any 
terms above absolute slavery," rather than " indepen- 
dency " ; but when the time for action came they re- 
sented every act on the part of the king and parlia- 
ment which involved subjection, or seemed to limit 
colonial liberty in the remotest degree. 

The legislature took up another idea of Mr. Adams 
by appointing a committee to correspond with the 
similar bodies in the other colonies, and thus take 
advantage of union as a means of strength. The 
Bostonians were familiar with this idea, for upon it 
the New England Confederation of 1643 was found- 



28o BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

ed ; but its revival at this juncture is none the less 
creditable to Adams, Out of it grew the congress at 
New York in 1765, the continental congress at Phila- 
delphia in 1774, and finally the union of the colonies, 
and independence. 

None of the resolves, instructions, protests, or 
prayers of Boston had any effect in warding off the 
hated tax, and on the twenty-second of March, 1765, 
the stamp act received the king's sanction. The 
news arrived at Boston on the twenty-sixth of May, 
and then the people found that they were doomed 
to pay a duty of from half a penny to twenty shil- 
lings on every skin of vellum or parchment, or sheet 
or piece of paper on which any document should be 
written or printed, if it was to have legal validity. 
They learned also that parliament had passed a 
" Mutiny Act," which required the colonies to pro- 
vide quarters for the king's troops (even in private 
houses) when on service in their limits. Three days 
later, Patrick Henry made his celebrated speech in 
the Virginia House of Burgesses ; and the Massa- 
chusetts legislature almost immediately proposed a 
congress, to be held in New York on the first Tues- 
day of October, since the act was to begin its opera- 
tion on the first of, November. 

People were everywhere excited to watchfulness ; 
it was whispered about that some provinces were 
resolved not to use the stamps, though business 
could not legally go on without them ; though ves- 
sels could not enter nor go out of a harbor without 
stamped papers ; though colleges could not grant 
their degrees, and marriages could not be made legal 



THE CHILD INDEPENDENCE. 28 1 

without them ; though newspapers and almanacs 
should be stamped ; though " this mark of slavery " 
was necessary in every line of activity. There was 
more than a spirit of watchfulness abroad ; Mayhew 
wrote : " I am clear on this point, that no people 
are under a religious obligation to be slaves if they 
are able to set themselves at liberty " ; and the Bos- 
ton papers declared that, though Liberty was dead, 
happily she had " left one son, the child of her bosom, 
prophetically named Independence," and that all 
looked for the day when he should come of age. It 
is too late for us to be dragooned out of our rights, 
the people declared, when there are two million in- 
habitants in America, and two hundred thousand in 
the province of Massachusetts alone. It was deter- 
mined that the ofificers appointed by the king to 
distribute the stamps should be forced to resign, 
and it was evident that the act would not execute 
itself. 

Andrew Oliver, secretary of Massachusetts, ac- 
cepted with temerity the office of distributer of 
stamps in Boston. When the sun rose on the four- 
teenth of August, a few days later, passers by " the 
Great Tree," which was one of a group of majestic 
elms that stood at the head of Essex Street, near 
the entrance to the town and opposite Boylston 
Market, saw hanging from its branches an effigy of 
Mr. Oliver, with a boot (representing Lord Bute) 
from which the devil peeped out, bearing a copy of 
the stamp act in his hands. No one was permitted 
to take the image down, though Lieutenant-Governor 
Hutchinson demanded that it should be done. " We 



282 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

will take them down in the evening," said the crowd. 
From the streets about, and from adjoining towns, 
men gathered to look at the sight, and business was 
quite laid aside. Governor Bernard and Mr. Hutch- 
inson conferred with their council, but all the satis- 
faction they obtained was the statement : " The 
country will never submit to the execution of the 
stamp act ! " As the day wore on, the numbers 
about the tree grew to a multitude. Then the efifigy 
was taken down, according to promise, and, with 
huzzas and cries of defiance, it was carried in orderly 
procession towards the town-house, where the gov- 
ernor heard his subjects shouting at the top of their 
voices : " Liberty, property, and no stamps ! " " Death 
to the man who offers a piece of stamped paper to 
sell ! " *' All the power of Britain shall not oblige us 
to submit ! " " We will die upon the place first ! " 
A building on Kilby Street, that was supposed to be 
intended as a stamp office, was demolished, and the 
men, taking sticks from the ruins, carried them to 
Fort Hill, where a bonfire was made, in which the 
effigy was burned in view of Mr. Oliver's house. 
The residence itself was afterwards attacked, its 
windows broken, and its fences torn down. The 
lieutenant-governor and the sheriff, who attempted 
to disperse the crowd, were set upon with sticks and 
stones, and escaped with bruises by favor of the 
darkness. The next day, Oliver was forced to resign 
his office. 

In the midst of these excitements. Dr. Mayhew 
preached a sermon, on the twenty-fifth of August, 
from the words : " I would they were even cut off 



DR. MAYHEW'S SERMON. 283 

which trouble you, for, brethren, ye have been called 
unto liberty." (Galatians v., 12, 13.) He spoke 
against the stamp act as a heavy grievance, and ex- 
pressed himself strongly in favor of civil and religious 
liberty ; but, at the same time, protested against 
abuses of liberty, and cautioned his hearers against 
riotous proceedings. The following day was marked 
by an occurrence of the character against which Dr. 
Mayhew had protested. A mob, inflamed by strong 
drink, attacked Hutchinson's house with savage fury, 
scarcely allowing him to escape with his life ; they 
carried off his family plate, his specie, and other 
valuables, and destroyed his unique collection of 
manuscripts that it had required a lifetime to bring 
together. The next morning the house was found 
with its roof partially uncovered, its cupola thrown 
down, its ornaments destroyed, and the streets about 
scattered with money, plate, gold rings, etc., which 
had been dropped in the darkness. The frenzied 
spirits had also destroyed the records of the vice- 
admiralty court, and ravaged the house of the 
comptroller of customs. The day after this dis- 
graceful riot, the enemies of Dr. Mayhew circulated 
reports of his sermon, declaring that he had encour- 
aged the resistance to the government, and had thus 
been the cause of the public disgrace. The doc- 
tor wrote directly to the governor, expressing his 
horror at the riot, and said that he would rather lose 
his hand than encourage such outrages. The cir- 
cumstance shows that in times of such excitement 
the better class, while limiting themselves to lawful 
methods of action, cannot put such restrictions upon 



284 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

those whose unbridled passions find opportunity for 
bursting out, — who cannot distinguish liberty from 
license. 

Such proceedings were, of course, abhorred by 
Adams also, and the soberer inhabitants generally, 
and on the following day at a town-meeting held 
in Faneuil Hall, which was as full as had ever 
been known, a unanimous vote was passed, declar- 
ing an utter detestation of the violent doings of 
the mob, and calling upon the selectmen to sup- 
press such disorders in the future. Hutchinson 
states that many of the immediate actors in the 
orgies of the night before were present at this meet- 
ing ; and he shows that he appreciated the situa- 
tion of affairs, for he says also that England had 
placed herself in a serious dilemma, for if " parlia- 
ment should make concessions, their authority would 
be lost, while if they should use external force, affec- 
tion would be forever alienated." Governor Bernard 
had already fied for safety to the Castle, and now 
Hutchinson followed him, while the attorney-gen- 
eral dared not to sleep in his house, nor for two con- 
secutive nights in the same place elsewhere, and all 
the other officers of the crown were terror-stricken. 

John Adams expressed the fears of many persons 
in Boston when he said : " There seems to be a direct 
and formal design on foot in Great Britain to en- 
slave all America," and he announced her determina- 
tion also when he added that liberty was to be 
defended dt all hazards. He called upon the pulpit 
to declare the truth that consenting to slavery is a 
sacrilegious breach of trust ; upon the bar, to pro- 



THE STAMP ACT DENOUNCED. 285 

claim the rights of man delivered from remote an- 
tiquity, having their foundations in the constitution 
of the intellectual and moral world, in truth, liberty, 
justice, and benevolence; upon the colleges, to im- 
press upon the tender mind of youth the beauty of 
liberty, the true ideas of right, and the sensation of 
freedom ; and finally on all, to impress upon their 
souls the aims of the forefathers in exchanging their 
native country for a wilderness. Under direction 
of Samuel Adams the town of Boston denounced 
the stamp act and the courts of admiralty, as con- 
trary to the constitution of Great Britain, the prov- 
ince charter, and human rights, and expressed a 
lively interest in the result of the congress to be 
held in New York in October. This body met in 
accordance with the call, and remained in session 
a single week. It accomplished its most important 
labor in bringing together representative men from 
the different colonies, and in making them familiar 
with their mutual views as a basis for concerted 
action in the future ; but it also prepared and issued 
addresses to the king, the lords, and the commons 
of England, all of which were consistent with the 
already familiar expressions of Samuel Adams. 

Meantime preparations were making in Boston 
and elsewhere for the first of November. Every- 
where it was the universal determination that the 
stamp act should not go into operation. Merchants 
countermanded their orders for British goods, do- 
mestic manufactures were encouraged, engagements 
were made to eat no lamb in or-der that the supply 
of wool for cloth might increase, and men and 



286 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

women vied witli one another in admiration of cloth- 
ing that was entirely of American manufacture. Otis 
declared that one act of parliament had " set the 
people a-thinking more in six months than they had 
done in their whole lives before." The papers 
abounded in songs intended to rouse the citizens to 
action. The Massachusetts Gazette contained a Bos- 
ton Song, of which the following is a stanza : 

" With us of the woods 

Lay aside your fine goods, 
Contentment depends not on fine clothes ; 

We hear, smell, and see, 

Taste and feel with high glee. 
And in winter have huts for repose." 

Efforts of this kind were long continued, and the 
Boston Evening Post of P'ebruary, 1766, contained in- 
structions for the children of America, in which we 
read : 

" With nervous arm strike deep the whale, 

pluck codfish tugging.at your line ; 
Take the broiled mackerel by her tail, 

let fops among tea-trinkets shine. 
Let oxen spread my valleys over, 

drinking at the crystal rills ; 
While fleecy flocks do nibble clover, 

growing on my verdant hills. 
Rise up, my daughters, light your tapers, 

take the spinning-wheel in hand. 
Your babes shall prattle how your labors 

helped to save a sinking land ! " 

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the best 
citizens feared that the day on which the stamp act 
was to go into effect might be marked by the same 



THE TREE OF LIBERTY. 28/ 

excesses that had made the twenty-sixth of August 
notorious, the Hberty party determined to make a 
demonstration, probably with a hope that the author- 
rities might be overawed and caused to give up all 
expectation that the act would either execute itself, 
as some had thought it would, or be submitted to, 
as most of the partisans of the crown expected. 
The spot selected for the purpose was the vicinity of 
Essex and Newbury (now Washington) streets, 
already mentioned. In September the largest of 
the famous elms that stood at that place had been 
adorned with a copper plate on which was stamped 
in letters of gold : " The Tree of Liberty, /Vugust 14, 
1765." 

The fateful first of November was a Friday ; it 
was ushered in by the tolling of bells ; and the ves- 
sels in the harbor displayed their colors at half-mast 
in token of mourning ; the Liberty Tree was orna- 
mented by two efifigies of British statesmen who 
supported the tax, which remained hanging until 
three in the afternoon, the subject of ridicule by 
thousands of spectators who gathered from town 
and country. Amid the shouts of the crowd the 
images were finally cut down and carried in solemn 
procession to the court-house, where the assembly 
was in session, and then to the gallows on the Neck, 
where they were suspended again, and afterwards 
cut down and subjected to indignities thought to be 
merited by the persons they represented. After 
loud cheers the multitude dispersed quietly to their 
homes, and the detestation of the Bostonians was 
supposed to have been duly expressed. The town 



288 BOSTON OPPOSES A TAX. 

was more than ordinarily quiet that night, as though 
the citizens desired to bear witness to their disap- 
proval of the riotous proceedings of the twenty-sixth 
of August. 

There was by no means unity on the other side of 
the sea in regard to the propriety of enforcing the 
stamp tax, and intimations of this fact were received 
from time to time in Boston, before and after the 
first of November. This encouraged the resistance 
that had been determined upon. Parliament be- 
came the arena upon which one of the most memor- 
able debates in the annals of England occurred. 
The subject of managing America was uppermost 
in all minds. Adams and Otis on the one side, and 
Bernard and Hutchinson on the other, stood for the 
two phases of the question in Boston. Benjamin 
Franklin, the Boston boy, was brought before the 
House of Commons, and examined, in order that 
light might be cast upon the debate by one well 
acquainted with both sides of the question. When 
asked if he thought that America ought to be pro- 
tected without paying any portion of the cost, he 
replied that the colonies had during the late war 
raised, clothed, and paid twenty-five thousand men, 
and spent many million pounds. He assured his 
questioners that the stamp tax would never be 
paid ; that if an armed force were sent to carry out 
the act, no one Avould be found in arms, and that it 
would be impossible to force the citizens to buy 
stamps, if they chose to go without them. 

In March, of the year 1776, the act was repealed ; 
the king gave his consent very much against his 



SOBER MEN REFLECTED. 289 

wishes ; the bells were set to ringing in London ; flags 
were generously displayed from all the ships on the 
Thames ; there were bonfires and illuminations. On 
the sixteenth of May the news was known in Boston, 
brought by a vessel owned by John Hancock ; and 
similar scenes were repeated. The Liberty Tree 
was covered with flags by day and illuminated at 
night three days later ; money was raised to release 
poor debtors from jail ; Hancock gave a grand dinner, 
and treated the populace in the street to a pipe of 
Madeira wine. 

Boston rejoiced that America had resisted, and 
that England had been forced to give up her darling 
project ; but sober men reflected with solicitude that 
parliament still declared itself supreme over all col- 
onies, in all cases whatsoever. There was cause for 
congratulation that the courts of law, which had for 
some time been closed, were open, and that busi- 
ness, which had been embarrassed, was able to run 
on in its usual channels, but the future was not clear 
to those who reflected. 




XXL 



IN THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 



The time at A\'liich we have now arrix-ed in our 
story is one of continually increasing excitement 
in Boston, and the skill and sagacity of Samuel 
Adams, and of the company of men of which he 
formed the centre, become more and more impress- 
ive at every step. They were men of positive views, 
who sufTered no doubts of the righteousness of their 
cause to shake the firmness of their actions. The 
influence of the chief town in the colony grew day 
by day ; the jealousy that had from time to time 
been felt by other towns, and their delegates in the 
court, had now, according to Hutchinson's History, 
disappeared, and all were more than willing that 
Boston should exert the power that it seemed to 
them her patriots had the ability and the wisdom to 
use aright for the common good. In bringing about 
this result no one had been more influential than 
James Otis, since his entrance upon the duties of 
legislator. There were constant meetings of the gen- 
eral court in which his voice was effectively heard ; 
and in the intervals there were more frequent gath- 
erings of the freemen of Boston, at which action 
was taken without reluctance that affected the inter- 
ago 



THE SON'S OF LIBERTY. 29 1 

est of Boston no more than that of the entire prov- 
ince. The leaders in both legislature and town- 
meeting were the same, and the chief among them 
held private evening meetings, at least once a week, 
at which arrangements were made for concerted ac- 
tion in the public gatherings. Thus measures were 
projected and settled by the few that were ratified 
by the many, and at the same time it was deter- 
mined how the public should be influenced through 
the press, for, as has been observed, Adams knew 
the power of printing-ink, and it is certain that 
those who labored with him agreed with him almost 
unanimously. 

In a speech delivered in parliament by Colonel 
Barr^, one of the staunch friends of Massachusetts, 
he called the Bostonians " Sons of Liberty," and the 
name was adopted by a society comprising about 
three hundred active patriots, many of whom were 
mechanics and laboring men, organized under saga- 
cious leaders. This influential body was successful 
in arranging secret caucuses, preliminary to elec- 
tions and celebrations, and in the " Life of Samuel 
Adams," by W. V. Wells (vol. i., p. 64), it is said 
that it went so far as even to issue warrants for the 
arrest of suspected persons. The public gather- 
ings of the society were held in *' Hanover Square," 
as it was then called, which was the open space in 
the highway around " Liberty Tree," at the junc- 
tion of Newbury, Orange, and Essex streets, which 
was re-named " Liberty Hall," and afforded room 
sufificient for several thousand persons to come to- 
gether. More private meetings were held, it is said, 



292 IN THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

in a counting-room on the same square. Through 
this organization the leaders directed the popular 
movement against the government. As early as 
1766 the Sons of Liberty, whose organization was 
quickly imitated in other towns, had every thing in 
their hands, and just before the news of the repeal 
of the stamp act reached Boston, they put Adams, 
Hancock, Otis, and other tried men into the legis- 
lature. Adams was chosen clerk, a position that 
enabled him to keep a watch of all action, and made 
it possible for him to give form to much of the 
legislation, while it did not at all interfere with his 
freedom as a debater whenever he wished to utter 
his sentiments. 

In spite of the repeal of the stamp act, England 
had in no degree renounced her intention of deriv- 
ing a revenue from America, and parliament now 
felt new incentives to this plan in consequence of 
wounded pride and mortified ambition over the 
" fatal compliance," as the king called the repeal. 
Accordingly, in June, 1767, through the influence of 
Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
a tax w^as laid upon glass, paper, paints, and tea, a 
board of commissioners of customs was established 
at Boston, and writs of assistance were formally 
made legal. Such acts as these gave the leaders of 
the Sons of Liberty the opportunity they wished, 
for they represented that liberty was to be snatched 
from the helpless colonists, that ships and troops 
w^ould soon come, that military rule would be es- 
tablished, and that the officers who were to carry 
out the acts of oppression would be paid out of the 
moneys wrenched from the Bostonians. 



CELEBRATIONS OF ANNIVERSARIES. 293 

One of the means of keeping the people interested 
in the movement against the government, that Adams 
and Otis knew would be efficacious, was the celebra- 
tion of appropriate anniversaries. When the anni- 
versary of the repeal of the stamp act came around, 
March 18, 1768, the occasion was celebrated with 
enthusiasm, but without any exhibitions of violence, 
though Hutchinson says that " fresh disturbances '' 
were threatened, and Bernard in his timidity re- 
corded that " many hundreds paraded the streets with 
yells and outcrys which were quite terrible," — quite 
terrible, indeed, the shouts of the people may have 
seemed to his Excellency, conscious of his own deserts, 
remembering how he had hectored the people's rep- 
resentatives, encouraged all movements that they 
feared and opposed, and how he was then constantly 
trying to influence the home government to send 
him troops that he might intimidate and not be 
intimidated. There was, it is true, a feast at Faneuil 
Hall, and toasts had been drunk to " martyrs of 
liberty," but the company separated early, and a 
crowd that assembled in the evening desisted from 
lighting bonfires, at the earnest request of influential 
gentlemen. Two effigies were suspended on Liberty 
Tree in the morning, but they were cut down with- 
out excitement. In like spirit the outbreak of the 
fourteenth of August against the stamp act was 
celebrated the same year. The British flag was 
flung to the breeze from the Liberty Tree at dawn 
(August 1 5th, for the 14th was Sunday) ; the principal 
gentlemen and chief inhabitants met under its shade ; 
the populace crowded around; there was music; 
" the universally admired American Song of Liberty " 



294 I^ THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

was sung; cannon were discharged ; " the fair daugh- 
ters of Hberty" adorned the windows of the neigh- 
boring houses, from which they "testified their 
approbation by smiles of satisfaction." After all, 
the gentlemen repaired to the Greyhound Tavern at 
Roxbury, the cavalcade being allowed to be the 
finest that had ever been seen in America, and there 
were salutes, toasts, and a frugal entertainment. In 
1769 there was another celebration on the fourteenth 
of August, at which there were present besides Otis, 
Adams and Hancock, John Adams, and visitors 
from Philadelphia with whom the Bostonians had 
sympathetic converse. Two tables were laid in the 
open field by the barn near Robinson's Liberty- 
Tree Tavern at Dorchester, and there were three or 
four hundred plates. Three large pigs were " bar- 
becued," there were toasts and thunders of cannon, 
Francis Bernard and the commissioners — "infamous 
calumniators of North America" — were denounced 
as worthy of condign punishment, " strong halters, 
firm blocks, and sharp axes" were spoken of as 
appropriate for the " taskmasters " of America, and 
all was life, patriotism, and jollity. John Adams re- 
marks that such celebrations tend to " tinge the 
minds of the people, they impregnate them with the 
sentiments of liberty, they render the people fond of 
their leaders in the cause, and adverse and bitter 
against all opposition." Hancock led the procession 
in his chariot on this occasion, and the line extended 
a mile and a half behind him. Before the day came 
around again the chiefs had found another day fit 
for celebration, and one that they thought it would 



DEBATES OPENED TO THE PUBLIC. 295 

be even more profitable to impress on the popular 
mind. 

Troops were now constantly expected in real 
earnest. Adams gave himself up to the cause of 
liberty without reserve, laboring day and night, and 
not making a single personal scheme, or looking 
forward to laying up any thing for himself or his 
descendants; in fact, it is certain that with his de- 
votion to the public good he could have succeeded 
in no business of a private nature. He owned his 
modest Purchase Street home, over which his thrifty 
wife presided with care, and for income he had a pit- 
tance as clerk of the assembly; but it is evident that 
it must have required all the skill of the most skilful 
New England housewife to keep the children and 
herself fed and clothed. Adams was not afraid of 
honest poverty; his "wife and children understood 
him and idolized him as their protector, adviser and 
companion, whose genial, courageous disposition 
knew not despondency and preserved a warm sun- 
shine in the hearts of all who shared his society." * 

At the motion of James Otis, June 3, 1766, the 
debates of the assembly were thrown open to the 
people, a gallery was provided for their accommoda- 
tion, and " for the first time in the history of legisla- 
tive associations it was made the right of the plain 
citizen to hear and see — a usage which has modified 
in important ways the proceedings and very charac- 
ter of deliberative bodies." f This politic step is 

* "The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams," by William 
Vincent Wells, vol. i., page 273. 

\ " Samuel Adams," by James Iv. Ilosmer, page 94 



296 IN THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

another mark of the sagacity of the leaders of 
Boston at this juncture. It was a means of edu- 
cating and inspiring the people at once, and at the 
same time it increased the importance of the legis- 
lative proceedings. * 

In June, 1768, another of the irritating occurrences 
of the day aroused the citizens. Some men were 
impressed by the captain of the frigate Ronmey, 
which lay in the harbor, lately arrived from Halifax. 
The captain made peace with a committee of gentle- 
men who called upon him to remonstrate, but the 
people, from among whom the men had been taken, 
cherished their resentments, while the merchants 
believed that the frigate had been sent to enforce 
the revenue laws. A few days after these impress- 
ments customs of^cers seized a vessel named the 
Liberty, belonging to John Hancock, declaring that 
she had violated the revenue laws, f She was carried 
off and placed under cover of the guns of the Rom- 
7iey. A furious mob collected at the wharf from 
which the Liberty had been taken, and swore ven- 
geance against the " oppressors," as most of the 

* " Life of James Otis," by Professor Francis Bowen, page 143. 
Tudor, " Life of Otis," page 253. 

f There is little doubt that the revenue laws had really been vio- 
lated, and yet it would be a harsh use of 'anguage to call John Han- 
cock a " smuggler." The new commissioners enforced laws that had 
long been in a state of desuetude, and the Liberty was made an 
example of (|uite unexpectedly. In popular fancy laws lapse through 
desuetude, and it seems as though the burdensome customs laws had 
so lapsed at this time, not only in popular fancy, but by the law of 
long custom and with the connivance of English officers in America, 
perhaps influenced by intimations from their superiors on the other 
side of the Atlantic. 



A BOSTON MOB. 297 

representatives of the royal government were habit- 
ually called, for it was supposed that more impress- 
ments had been made. When it was known that a 
vessel belonging to so popular a man as Hancock 
had been seized, the mob set upon the ofifiicers ; 
Jo-^eph Harrison, the collector, was severely wounded 
by a stone ; his son, who held no ofificial position, 
was thrown down and barbarously used ; other offi- 
cers were similarly treated ; the house of the in- 
spector-general was broken into and damaged, while 
a pleasure boat belonging to the collector was 
dragged to the Common and burned. There was no 
further violence that night, and Saturday and Sun- 
day, which followed, were quiet, but the feelings of 
the people were rising, and there were threatening 
gatherings in different parts of the town. The com- 
missioners began to feel insecure and took refuge on 
board the Roviney, asking the governor to admit 
them to the Castle for protection. The governor 
gave them permission to go to the Castle, but at the 
same time informed them that he could not guaran- 
tee them protection. 

On Monday, June 13th, notices were posted by 
the leaders, calling a meeting at " Liberty Hall " on 
the following day ; but when the day arrived it was 
rainy, and the gathering, which was composed of 
several thousand persons, adjourned to Faneuil Hall. 
A town-meeting was called for three o'clock, at the 
same place, but the room was found too small, and 
there was another adjournment to the Old South 
meeting-house, where James Otis was moderator. 
Otis directed the meeting with great good judgment, 



2q8 in the grip of THE ARMY. 

and put aside all extravagant motions without of- 
fending the movers. A committee was appointed 
to address Governor Bernard at his seat in Roxbury. 
The governor, knowing that he was completely at 
the mercy of the people, treated the committee with 
great consideration, gave them wine before they left, 
and led them to think that he was really a well- 
wisher of the town. Bernard's fears were well 
founded. The town of Boston had said, in instruct- 
ing its representatives : " It is our unalterable reso- 
lution at all times to assert and vindicate our dear 
and invaluable rights and liberties, at the utmost 
hazard of our lives and fortunes," and the people 
meant what they said, as the governor well knew. 

There had been expectations before this that 
troops would be brought to Boston to overawe the 
citizens, and these anticipations were now intensified, 
for it was evident to both governor and people that 
unless an armed force should support the royal 
of^cers they would be powerless. Still, Bernard was 
too timid to ask for troops ; he wished to be able to 
say that he had not gone so far as that. He there- 
fore continued to satisfy himself by making com- 
plaints intended to show that troops were needed. 
In July he received information from Gage, who 
was commander-in-chief, that troops had been or- 
dered from Halifax to Boston, " if they are wanted " ; 
and he replied that he could not apply for troops, 
but wrote home that he felt it improper to prevent 
their coming, if they were ordered by others. 

Early in September an officer arrived from Halifax, 
whose mission was suspected to be to look for quar- 



A CONVENTION OF DEPUTIES. 299 

ters for soldiers. On the thirteenth a town-meeting 
was held, and it was voted that " as there is at this 
time a prevailing apprehension of approaching war 
with France, every inhabitant is requested to provide 
himself with a well-fixed firelock musket, accoutre- 
ments, and ammunition," though in reality such a 
war was as much a legal fiction as ever was John 
Doe or Richard Roe. A committee, comprising 
Adams, Otis, Hancock, Warren, and others, had 
already been formed to take the state of public 
affairs into consideration ; and now a fast was ap- 
pointed, and the town was in consternation. A 
convention of deputies from all the towns in the 
province was called to meet in Faneuil Hall, Sep- 
tember 22d, and, at the time set, more than ninety 
towns sent delegates. This body declared its al- 
legiance to the king, as usual, and its abhorrence 
of violence and riot, though, at the same time, it 
asserted the natural and chartered rights of the peo- 
ple, and expressed confidence that the wrongs under 
which the colony felt that it was suffering would be 
redressed by their " gracious sovereign." The con- 
vention adjourned September 29th, and the next 
day, Friday, six of His Majesty's ships-of-war came 
up the harbor and anchored around the town with 
loaded cannon, as if intending a regular siege. On 
the following day two regiments, a train of artillery, 
and two pieces of cannon were landed at Long 
Wharf, and the soldiers marched up King Street, 
" with insolent parade," the citizens thought, their 
drums beating, their fifes playing, and their colors 
flying, each one supplied with sixteen rounds of 



300 IN TH'E GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

shot. Then there was a dispute about quarters, and 
finally some of the troops were lodged at Faneuil 
Hall, others in the town-house, and the remainder in 
store-houses. The people of Boston went to bed that 
night feeling that they lived in a garrisoned town, 
and that his "gracious Majesty " was a cruel father. 

There was a period of quiet after the arrival of the 
troops, though it was the calm before a storm ; the 
people were not accustomed to the sight of soldiers, 
and were in fear ; day by day their discontent be- 
came more manifest. Very little matters irritated 
the citizens ; they were accustomed to the night- 
watch of the town, but they did not like to be 
stopped and called upon to answer for themselves 
by an armed sentinel ; they objected to the noise of 
drum and fife and the sight of marching men on 
Sunday. The general and the other military ofificers 
were desirous of avoiding unnecessary irritation of 
the people, and the rules of the army were relaxed, 
as far as consistent with discipline ; but it was not 
at all the desire of certain citizens that the army 
should appear inoffensive. Every occasion of dis- 
turbance was taken up and magnified by the papers, 
and the intruders were made as odious as possible. 

At the same time, patriotism was stimulated in 
every way. Students of Harvard College, " with a 
spirit becoming Americans," bound themselves to 
use no more tea, which was stigmatized as " that 
despised article," the " pernicious herb," and by the 
sixth of October two hundred families in Boston had 
also agreed to give up its use. The agreement ex- 
tended to other towns, as also to other provinces. 



THE WOMEN OF BOSTON. 30I 

Congenial and innocent amusements were renounced, 
one reason being that they would necessarily have to 
be shared with men who were the " instruments of 
despotism " ; and when the British officers, thinking 
that the prevailing gloom was disloyal, endeavored to 
engage the fashionable classes in assemblies, no ladies 
outside of their own limits favored the occasions 
with their presence. " Elegant manners, gay uni- 
forms, animating bands of musick, the natural im- 
pulse of youth, — all were resisted ; the women of 
Boston refused to join in ostentatious gayety while 
their country was in mourning," as the contemporary 
journals tell us. 

During the closing weeks of 1768, Boston was 
disturbed in many ways by the presence of the 
soldiery; outrages were complained of every day; 
there were drunken brawls in the streets ; men 
were knocked down at night ; women were in- 
sulted by day ; one Captain Wilson was accused of 
exciting the slaves against their masters ; a trades- 
man was thrust at by a soldier with a bayonet as he 
was going under the rails of the Common on his way 
home; a merchant was struck down by an officer; 
and finally John Hancock was arrested by the com- 
missioners for some matter connected with the 
seizure of his sloop Liberty.^ The Superior Court 
convened on the eighth of November, in the town- 
house, where troops were quartered, and Mr. Otis 
moved to have the session in Faneuil Hall, for, as 
he said, " not only might the stench occasioned by 

* The charges, Mr. Bancroft says, were "confidently made, but 
never established." " History of the U. S.," vol. vi., page 213. 



302 IN THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

the troops in the representative's chamber prove in- 
fectious," but because it was derogatory to the court 
to administer justice at the mouths of cannon and 
the points of bayonets. In May, 1769, the general 
court came together, and, finding the building sur- 
rounded by troops, Otis rose, and in a short speech 
declared that it was unworthy of a free legislature to 
deliberate in the presence of the military, and moved 
that the governor be called upon to order the imme- 
diate removal of the soldiery, by sea and land, out of 
the port and gates of the city during the sessions.* 
The governor replied that he had no control over the 
troops ; and the legislature thereupon declined to at- 
tend to business, upon which Bernard adjourned the 
body to Cambridge. It assembled in the chapel of 
Harvard College, and the students naturally came to 
hear the discussions. Otis, following the example 
set by Samuel Adams twenty-six years before, took 
advantage of the occasion to excite the young men 
with the enthusiasm that he was controlled by. He 
expatiated on the darkness of the times, spoke of the 
" persecution " under which the colony was suffering", 

* It has l)een remarked that tlie leaders in the colonial legislature 
were also the leaders in the councils of the town of Boston. It is natu- 
ral, therefore, to find that this action had been taken by the selectmen, 
before the ti)\\n-meeting at which the Boston delegates were chosen. 
They waited upon General Gage, and informed him that an election 
was to occur on May 5th, and that the presence of the troops was not 
in accordance with the rights of British subjects. Ciage replied that 
though he could not march the soldiers out of town, he would confine 
them to their barracks ; but even that was not considered sufticient, 
and the town protested that, though the election should be held, the 
act should not be esteemed a precedent at any future time. 



HARVARD STUDENTS ROUSED. 303 

made rapid and glowing allusions to the classic models 
of patriotism that then formed the study of the 
young men, which they might soon be called upon 
to emulate, and assured them that they might ere- 
long have an opportunity to perform the noblest of 
all duties, — to serve their country, even, perhaps, to 
give up to her their lives. The students were roused 
to a high pitch of excitement, for they already held 
the principles that Otis recommended, and were pre- 
pared to be affected by such an eloquent harangue. 

The legislature resolved to petition the king to 
remove Governor Bernard, who had lost all the little 
popularity that he ever possessed by writing letters 
to the British ministers, in which he urged measures 
that were considered prejudicial to American inter- 
ests. Probably this petition had no more to do with 
the recall of the governor than similar less public 
prayers had had ; but the following day he announced 
that he was called to London to give a report to the 
king of the state of affairs in the colony. The legis- 
lature asserted that it was owing to his misrepresen- 
tations to the ministers that the military force was, 
at the time, quartered in the town of Boston ; that 
he was an avowed enemy of the colony and of the 
nation in general ; that he was wanton and precipitate 
in his of^cial actions, and acted against the spirit of 
a free constitution. 

Perhaps the ministers thought that there might be 
some truth in the statement that the troubles in Bos- 
ton were owing to the injudicious actions of Bernard. 
He did not again assume the duties of governor of 
Massachusetts. The day of his departure was made 



304 IN THE GRIP OF THE ARMY. 

a time of rejoicing ; flags were raised, bells pealed 
forth their liveliest notes, cannons roared, Fort Hill 
was crowned with a huge bonfire that night, and 
Liberty Tree was exultantly adorned. This gov- 
ernor's character has been blackened by writers since 
his day, as it was at the time ; but he was apparently 
an honest supporter of prerogative, and not an un- 
principled trickster as he has been represented. He 
had education, refinement, and good taste ; but he 
did not know how to govern Massachusetts in a way 
that would please its citizens. It is not easy to say, 
even now, how any man could have filled the place 
that he held to the satisfaction of Samuel Adams 
and King George at once. He is credited with hav- 
ing brought about the Revolution by his injudicious 
management of affairs ; but it is probable that the 
Revolution would not have been greatly retarded 
by the most judicious governor that England could 
have sent to Massachusetts. 



XXII. 



BLOOD IS SPILLED. 



At the time that Governor Bernard left Bos- 
ton, the public life of James Otis, long one of the 
popular idols of the town, and one of the most 
influential of the group of patriots, practically came 
to an end. Otis had labored with all his might, and 
his mind began to show the effects of overwork ; he 
grew garrulous and reckless in his utterances, he was 
irritable and curiously eccentric. The abuse and 
false charges that were made against the popular 
party, and largely against him, specially aroused his 
indignation, and by means of an ill-advised advertise- 
ment, inserted in the Boston Gazette o[ September 4, 
1769, he took occasion to give vent to his disordered 
fancies in very plain words, addressed to the four 
commissioners of customs, whom he mentioned by 
name. The following evening he encountered one 
of these commissioners at the British Coffee-House, 
and there was an altercation, from which Mr. Otis 
came out bearing severe wounds that had been given 
with a sword in the hands of the commissioner. The 
occurrence excited the public mind, already in a 
feverish state, and intensified the opposition to the 
government. Otis took legal measures against the 

305 



306 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

commissioner, and roco\-civd two thousand jHiunds 
damages, not a penny of which winild his proud spirit 
allow him to accept above the doctor's bill and the 
actual expenses of the trial, as the records of the 
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts still testify. 
Mr. Otis was from this time seen little in the coun- 
cils of Boston and of the colon}-, the leadership de- 
Nolving more exclusiveh' upon Samuel Adams ; but 
the cause did not suffer, as the friends of the kini^" 
supposed it would, if only " Otis and two or three 
more factious leaders could be removed." 

The place occupied by Bernard was taken now by 
Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant-i:;overnor. wlu^se his- 
tor\- we are already somewhat familiar with. De- 
scended from worthy Puritan ancestors, a i^ratluate 
of Harvard College, possessing- ample wealth, and 
agreeable manners, he had been at this time in pub- 
lic life for more than thirt}' years. He had been 
selectman of the town, a member of the colonial 
legislature, and its agent in London, and latterly he 
had, as has been stated, held a number of almost 
incompatible offices, — ofifices possessing both legis- 
lative and judicial functions, — that the leaders in 
Boston, at least, thought incompatible. howe\-er 
jutliciousl)' their duties ma\- ha\e been [^erformetl. 
He had been opposed b}- Adams in the past, and now 
that patriot becomes the one among the opponents 
that he had to meet whom lie deemetl of .my im- 
portance. Hutchinson called Adams "the master 
of the puppets," a title that is not just t(.> the 
strong men who were about him. though the .diility 
with which A(.lams directed legislation and popular 



LONDON TKMJ'TS BOSTON . 307 

movcmcnts forces us to allow that it iiad a remark- 
able significance. 

The breach between the Bostonians and the king 
widened in a very natural way. When Governor 
Bernard returned to London he was looked upon as 
one who must be acquainted witii the sentiments of 
the Americans, and his counsel was accepted accord- 
ingly, as based upon thorougli inforiTiatif;n. When, 
therefore lie assured the Lt^ndoners that the; most 
respectable of the Jitjston merchants would not ad- 
here to their non-importation agreements, merchants 
in England were encouraged to renew their exporta- 
tions. In the autumn of 1769 Samuel Adams re- 
ceived intimations that large importations might 
soon be expected " under ministerial favor." This 
information was correct. On September 4th an 
agent arrived, charged with a considerable consign- 
ment of goods. The merchants who had agreed not 
to receive such importations held a meeting the 
next day, at which they directed that the goods 
should be returned to England. The town of Bos- 
ton, which Hutchinson said was the "chief seat of 
the o{)position," held a meeting likewise, and began 
a list of those who had made themselves " infamous" 
by violating the non-importation agreement,''^' in 
order " that posterity might know who tiiose per- 

* Josiah <^)uincy, Jr., was most ardent in urging retaliation on 
Orcat Uritain, and insisted ii])on lireaking off not only business rela- 
tions, hut also "all social intercourse with those whose commerce 
contaminates, whose luxuries [)oison, whose avarice is unsatiahle, and 
whose unnatural. opjjressicjns are not to he liorne." {Boston Gazette, 
Feb. 12, 1770.) " Memoirs of the Life of Josiali (,)uincy, Jr.." by 
Josiah ',)nii)(y, page 23. 



308 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

sons were that preferred their little advantage to 
the common interest of all the colonies in a point 
of the greatest importance." At the same meeting 
a strong committee was appointed to vindicate the 
town from the false imputations put upon it by 
Bernard, Gage, and others, in their letters, and after 
a delay of but two weeks an " Appeal to the World," 
appeared, from the pen of Samuel Adams. In this 
the town calmly placed itself on record as determined 
never to consider its wrongs redressed until the 
whole assumed right of taxation was renounced by 
England, whose ministers were thus boldly warned 
against the consequences of persistence in the action 
urged by the governor and others like-minded. 

Considerable forbearance was shown by the troops 
at this time, for the people often goaded them al- 
most beyond endurance ; and though Hutchinson 
thought that matters ought to have gone to extrem- 
ities, he doubted his authority to order the soldiers 
to fire upon the populace. In October an informer 
who had given evidence regarding some wine that 
had been smuggled from Rhode Island, was tarred 
and feathered and carried in a cart accompanied by 
a large concourse of people, and at last was brought 
to the Liberty Tree, where he was obliged to swear 
never to be guilty " of a like crime in the future." An 
intelligent Scotch bookseller, who published a news- 
paper which found its interest in supporting the gov- 
ernment, was threatened with the like treatment, but 
escaped. In many other ways the soldiers were 
offered opportunities to interfere, but they were re- 
strained until the following spring. Meantime the 
first blood was spilled. 



" THE FIRST MARTYR." 309 

On the twenty-second of February, 1770, some 
boys set up a board before the shop of an importer* 
named Lillie, who had been denounced for breaking 
the non-importation agreement, on which were 
carved the faces of four similar offenders. One 
Richardson, an informer, endeavored to persuade 
some country teamsters to drive their carts against 
the board and to throw it down, and this incensed 
the crowd that stood around. Insulting language 
was used on both sides ; boys threw stones at 
Richardson ; he withdrew to his house, shut himself 
in, and at last fired upon the crowd. Two boys 
were wounded, one of whom, Christopher Schneider, 
aged eleven, died the next day. The bells of the 
New Brick were set ringing, a vast concourse col- 
lected, Richardson was arrested and held for trial. f 
Schneider died at his father' s house on Frog Lane, 
now Boylston Street, and was announced as the 
" first martyr to the noble cause," the " first victim to 
the cruelty and rage of oppressors." Opportunity 
was taken to have an impressive funeral. The little 
corpse was brought to the Liberty Tree on Monday, 
the twenty sixth, in a cofifin that bore Latin inscrip- 
tions adapted to excite the lookers-on. Six of the 
boy's playfellows acted as pall-bearers ; a procession of 
four hundred or more schoolboys marched in couples 
before the body ; thirteen hundred citizens followed 

* This shop was near the Second Church or New Brick, which 
then stood on Hanover Street. The church was surmounted by the 
large gilded cock shown in Revere's picture of Boston, which now 
stands on the spire of the Shepard Memorial Church in Cambridge. 

\ Richardson was found guilty of murder, but was finally pardoned 
by the king, Hutchinson having refused to sign a warrant for his 
execution. 



3IO BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

on foot, and many chariots and chaises closed the 
procession, which made a lasting impression on the 
beholders; and indeed the whole of the citizens 
shared the sadness, or reflected upon the conse- 
quences that might flow from the circumstance that 
"the son of a poor German," as Hutchinson ex- 
pressed it, had been killed. 

Doubtless the funeral was exasperating to Hut- 
chinson and to the soldiers, who were cordially hated 
by the populace, as the constant bruising affrays 
between them amply testify. The troops were some 
of them quartered in " Murray's Barracks," near the 
former site of the Brattle Street church, and most 
of the remainder just south of King Street, the 
main guard being directly opposite the south door 
of the town-house. A sentinel was placed in a 
tunnel or covered passage between Cornhill and 
Brattle Street, then known as Draper's or Boylston's 
alley. The position of the soldiers became more 
and more difficult, and within a week after the fune- 
ral a notable affray occurred between the twenty- 
ninth regiment and some men employed in one of 
the rope-walks* near the present Post-office Square, 
which was not far from the home of Samuel Adams. 
It is impossible to determine on which side the fault 

* Rope making was one of the most important industries in early 
Boston. It dates from 1641 or 1642, when John Harrison set up his 
establishment on ground at the foot of Sumner Street, afterwards 
" purchased " Ijv the town, whence the name of the street on which 
Samuel .\dams lived, — Purchase Street. In 1712 Edward Gray began 
his business on a tract near Pearl Street, and soon the family were the 
most celebrated of all in their line of business. Harrison Gray, grand- 
father of Harrison tjray Otis, was a son of the lirst Edward. 



ROPE-MAKEKS TROUBLE THE TROOPS. 31I 

should be placed in this case, for the accounts differ 
widely; it is enough for our purposes to know that 
the strained relations between the soldiery and the 
townspeople, especially the less intelligent of them, 
resulted in a serious street affray, and that in the 
desperate encounter several of the soldiers were se- 
verely wounded, while the rope-makers fared equally 
badly. The soldiers were constantly followed in 
the streets by hooting and hissing crowds, and it 
required all the skill of the officers to restrain them 
from showing natural resentment. 

On the third of March the commanding officer of 
of the twenty-ninth made formal complaint to Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Hutchinson of the insults that his 
men had received, especially from some of the men 
of the rope-walk, and on Monday, the fifth, the mat- 
ter was brought to the attention of the council. 
Some of the council assured Hutchinson that the 
people would be satisfied with nothing short of the 
removal of the troops, and another said that he knew 
that some of the principal citizens had several times 
met for the purpose of consulting about a plan for 
their removal. Nothing was done, however, and 
soon after nine o'clock that evening, which was 
moonlight, the danger from the presence of the sol- 
diers was proved again. Hutchinson relates that 
early in the evening parties of soldiers had been ob- 
served driving about the streets as though there was 
something more than ordinary on their minds, and 
that the citizens had been noticed clustering to- 
gether ; that at eight o'clock a bell was rung as if 
for fire, and that this brought a crowd to the mar- 



312 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

ket-place, not far from King Street, armed with blud- 
geons. Whether there was really any extraordinary 
stir at that time or not, it is certain that the streets 
were soon thronged by excited men and boys who 
pelted the sentinels with bits of ice, and when a 
body of nine soldiers was brought out and stood 
before them with loaded pieces, they still shouted 
coarse insults and dared the men to fire. It is not 
unlikely that some of the threats were thought by 
the soldiers to be a command from their own officer, 
Captain John Preston, for there was such a din that 
words could with difficulty be distinguished. How- 
ever it happened, the mass of confused and contra- 
dictory testimony does not make clear, but the re- 
sults we know. There lay on the icy snow the bodies 
of Crispus Attucks, a mulatto, and Samuel Gray, 
one of the rope-makers who had had previous quar- 
rels with the soldiers, both of whom were active in 
this affray, and James Caldwell, a sailor. Several 
other persons were more or less wounded, and two 
of them died. The wildest confusion followed ; 
Preston restrained his men from a second discharge ; 
but the bells were rung, the drums beat to arms, 
and soon King Street was crowded by a throng said 
to comprise four or five thousand men. Hutchinson 
appeared and reprimanded Captain Preston for his 
share in the affair, while he called upon the people 
to retire to their homes. Being informed that the 
crowd would riot disperse until Preston had been 
placed under arrest, Hutchinson had the captain 
brought before him and an investigation was begun 
which lasted until three o'clock the next morning. 



" MEN WHO PRA V." 3 I 3 

As soon as daylight came the town was again filled 
with buzzing crowds, that gathered from the coun- 
try around to learn every detail of the thrilling 
events. An informal town-meeting was held in 
Faneuil Hall at eleven o'clock, at which witnesses 
of the affray gave their accounts of what had 
occurred, and Samuel Adams made an address. A 
committee was sent to the governor, to tell him 
again that the peace could not be preserved while 
the troops remained, and a more formal town-meet- 
ing was appointed for three in the afternoon, so 
urgent was the emergency considered. At the ap- 
pointed hour the people came to the hall, but it was 
found too contracted for the throng, and an adjourn- 
ment was had to the Old South, where the result 
of the interview with Hutchinson was awaited with 
breathless interest. The crowd, as it passed from 
the hall to the meeting-house, went over the ground 
still stained by the blood shed the evening before, 
and under the windows of the town-house in which 
Adams and the others were engaged in their im- 
portant argument with Hutchinson. " This multi- 
tude are not such as pulled down your house," said 
one of the council to the lieutenant-governor, as the 
people passed beneath their eyes ; " but they are 
men of the best characters, men of estates, and men 
of religion ; men who pray over what they do." 

Into this determined crowd Samuel Adams soon 
issued at the head of the committee, with the report 
that the regiments could not both be removed ; that 
only one was to go ; and as he passed along with 
bowed head, he whispered to those near him : " Both 



314 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

regiments or none ! Both regiments or none ! " 
Once inside of the crowded building, the report was 
formally announced that the twenty-ninth, because 
of the part it had played in the affray, was to be 
removed to the Castle, but that the fourteenth would 
remain in town. Then the shout of the people, who 
remembered their cue, burst forth in deafening 
power: " Both regiments or none! Both regiments 
or none !" A new committee was carefully selected, 
and Hancock and Adams were counted in it, with 
Joseph Warren, the eloquent physician. These gen- 
tlemen returned to the council-chamber and reported 
to the lieutenant-governor the determination of the 
people. Adams spoke in his usual manner, arguing, 
as he had so often argued, against the legality of quar- 
tering troops on the people in time of peace without 
the consent of the legislature, and insisting upon the 
necessity of the removal of them all. To this Hutch- 
inson replied that the presence of the soldiers was 
both legal and necessary, and that they were, how- 
ever, not under his command. Adams replied that 
if he had power to remove one, he had power to 
remove both regiments. " A multitude," said he, 
" highly incensed, now wait the result of this appli- 
cation. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands 
that both regiments be forthwith removed. Their 
voice must be respected, their demand obeyed. Fail 
not, then, at your peril, to comply with this requisi- 
tion. On you alone rests the responsibility of this 
decision ; and if the just expectations of the people 
are disappointed, you must be answerable to God 
and your country for the fatal consequences' that 




^ a 



S^ 



3l6 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

must ensue." Hutchinson declares that he indig- 
nantly resented the menace and absolutely refused 
to dismiss- the troops. However, after a long debate, 
the commander of the forces, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Dalrymple, gave his word of honor as a soldier that 
the removal should take place at once, and the com- 
mittee returned to the waiting crowd at the church 
to announce the news. The report was received 
with tokens of great satisfaction, but the cautious 
citizens did not feel like adjourning until they had 
appointed the gentlemen who had just waited on 
the authorities a Committee of Safety, and had 
made arrangements for a strong night-watch in 
which the most important citizens were afterwards 
called upon to carry their muskets and cartridge- 
boxes. This guard was continued until every sol- 
dier had left town. 

Before the troops could be removed, on the fol- 
lowing Thursday, March 8th, the funerals of the 
slain were celebrated with all the pomp that Boston 
was capable of displaying at the time. The assem- 
blage was the "largest ever known"*; the bells 
were tolled in Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury, Charles- 
town ; the bodies of Caldwell and Attucks, the 
friendless ones among the victims, were taken to 
Faneuil Hall, Maverick's was borne from his moth- 
er's home on Union Street, and that of Gray from 
his brother's on Royal Exchange Lane. The four 
hearses formed a junction on the fatal King Street, 

* This estimate of the numbers in public gatherings is often re- 
peated by enthusiastic narrators, and probably means that the crowd 
was great. 



FUNERALS OF THE MASSACRED. 317 

and thence the procession continued six deep to the 
Middle or Granary Burying-ground, where the bodies 
were solemnly laid in a single grave. Thus the last 
view that the retreating soldiers had of King Street 
was marked by the passage of thousands of Bostonians 
doing honor to the men whose taunts and insults had 
goaded them beyond endurance, and they felt the 
humiliation of their situation as they gave way be- 
fore the successful " bullies " of the little town who 
had put them to ignominious flight. It was not 
" ignominious " in Dalrymple, however, to take his 
men away from an infuriated populace ; there were 
then thousands of sturdy New Englanders in the 
towns about, ready to crowd into Boston at the 
proper signal ; and what were two single regiments 
to do if they had come ? It was foolhardy in Hutch- 
inson to resist the demand of the determined gath- 
ering at the Old South. He had been wise the eve- 
ning before, but on that day his sagacity deserted 
him. When Lord North, the unwise minister of 
King George, heard of the circumstances, he was in- 
terested in every detail, and the picture of Adams 
before Hutchinson impressed him so deeply that he 
afterwards called the fourteenth and twenty-ninth 
"the Sam Adams regiments." 

The Boston leaders showed their practical knowl- 
edge of human nature by making notable the fune- 
rals of the men killed on the fifth of March ; they 
showed it again when they put forth John Adams 
and Josiah Quincy, Jr., patriots whose loyalty could 
not be aspersed, to defend Preston and the soldiers 
when they came to their trial. It was real courage 



31 S BLOOD IS SP/LLED. 

th.\t these men exhibited when they appeared in 
court for this purpose, at a time when the pubh'c 
mind was exasperated by what the people considered 
the " murder " of their fellow-citizens by a brutal 
soldiery.* It is an instance of the desire of Samuel 
Adams and the other le.iders to have their motives 
proved above suspicion. John Adams s;iid, that he 
and j\Ir. Ouincy heard their " nan\es execrated in 
the most opprobrious terms '* whenever they ap- 
peared in the streets of Hoston. by men who could 
not restrain their passions long- enough to let justice 
be heard. The trials came off in October and Xo- 
ven\ber. and Preston was acquitted. Of the eight 
men. two were found " not guilty," and two were 
sentenced to be slightly branded in the hand in 
open court, for manslaughter, after which all were 
discharged and sent to the Castle. 

Magnitied into a patriotic *' strug-gle for liberty "' 
against an oppressive militan.' power, the King 

* Mr. Qinncy's father wmte frv^m Uraintrw ; ** Inxxl God ! Is it 
jx\!5iiWe ? 1 will not WUex^c it. ... I ha\-c l^een told that \\>« hav« 
actually cngag<xl for Captain lYes^>n ; and I ha\t hearvl the sextrest 
rrjtUvtivMvs made w{vn the vxvasioix, by men who havl just before mani- 
festet.1 the highest esteem for wu as one destineil to be a savior of 
wur csnmtry. I must vnvn to \xhi. it has tillevi the K\som of yvmr agevi 
and intirm \viirent with anxiety and vlistvfjs, . , . I will not beliex^eit 
xmlesss it l>e c\M\tirmevl by wur own n\v>uth, or under wur v>wn hand." 
To this the sv-in replievl that the criminals, though chargevl with murvler. 
were entitle^l to all legal counsel and aid. and that he at tirst de- 
clinevl to l>e engsxgerl until uigevl by an Adams, a Hancock, a Moli- 
neux. a Oushvng. a Henshaw, a IVmlx^non. a Wamen. a Cooj>er, and 
a Phillijvs" and addeil ; " I dare atiirm th.^t \\nt and this whole ^xx^ple 
will one day RKjoiCK that I l^ecame .^n adwvate for the aforesaid 
' crin\inals,' ,i,j'5,'v\/ with the murxler of our fellow-citixens." — '* Ijfe 
of v^uincy," jxage uS, 



r.tC'L REVF.KE rLLCMIXA TES. 319 

Street afFra}- had an immense influence in strength- 
ening;" the sentiment, tlien rapidly growing, in fa\or 
of the independence that Ailams had been laboring 
for. " From that moment," said Daniel Webster. 
•■ we may date the severance of the British empire." 
When the hfth of March camearonnd. in \~~i, some 
citizens gathered in " the Manufactory Mouse," a 
building then standing on the present site of Hamil- 
ton Place (^selected because the first opposition to 
the soldiers had been made there in i^Cx-). when it 
had been refused to Governor Bernard as a barracks 
for the troopsX and listened to a patriotic address 
by Or. Thomas Young. The same evening. Paul 
Revere had his house in North Square illuminated, 
exhibiting in one window a representation of the 
ghost of young Schneii^ler. in another a \iew of the 
" ^lassacre." and in a third tlie Genius of America in 
tears. Several thousand persons thronged about the 
house, and a melancholy gloom and solemn silence 
subdued them as the}- looked, which were intensified 
by the dismal tolling of the bells on the meeting- 
houses from nine to ten o'clock. This was a private 
celebration, but in accordance with their polic\- of 
emphasizing an\' event that might increase the dif- 
ferences between the people and the government, 
the leaders dignified the King Street encounter by 
calling it " the Boston IMassacre." and then cele- 
brating its anniversary. The fourteenth of August 
was no longer honored, as it had been, for the stamp- 
act riot; and, until 1783. when the Fourth of July 
became the day for stirring up the patriotism of the 
people, the fifth of March was taken, adwmtage of by 



320 BLOOD IS SPILLED. 

the delivery of an annual oration, and by a com- 
memoration of the " martyrs " of the day. The 
following lines, which were circulated at the time of 
the funeral of the victims, show the spirit in which 
the affair was regarded. 

" Well-fated shades ! let no unmanly tear 
From Pity's eye disdain your honored bier ; 
Lost to their view, surviving friends may mourn, 
Yet o'er thy pile shall flames celestial burn ; 
Long as in Freedom's cause the wise contend, 
Dear to your country shall your fame extend, 
While to the world the lettered stone shall tell 
How Caldwell, Attucks, Gray, and Maverick fell." 





XXIII. 



STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 



The day of the Boston " Massacre " was that on 
which parliament removed all of its odious duties 
except that upon tea, which was retained in order to 
insist that England still had the right to impose such 
taxes on her colonists. The " Massacre " itself had 
the influence of making the opponents of Boston in 
England still more determined that the spirit of the 
Americans should be broken, and it made the Bos- 
toneers more firm in their opposition to all encroach- 
ments upon their " liberties." Hutchinson was now 
more than ever jealous and afraid of the influence of 
Boston in the councils of the colony, and in calling 
the legislature together he mentioned Cambridge as 
the place of meeting. He had thought of Salem, — 
" the further from Boston the better," he said. 
This fear on the part of colonial governors was no 
new thing ; we have seen the legislature meet before 
this at Cambridge, and we shall yet see it meet at 
Salem. Hutchinson thought the legislature as a 
whole " sour and troublesome enough," but all the 
other delegates were comparatively easy to manage, 
and he said : " I am very sure, if the members of 
Boston were out of the house, I should find a ma- 

321 



322 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

jority in favor of the government." All that the 
other towns can do," he exclaimed, " will be a perfect 
trifle compared with the trouble the town of Boston 
gives me. ... I would give up all, if the town 
could be separated from the rest of the province. 
. . . It is the common language of Adams and 
the rest that they are not to be intimidated by acts 
of parliament, for they will not be executed here." 
This he wrote in a letter to England, and he cau- 
tiously said to his correspondent : " I am sure you 
will not suffer what I write to come back again, even 
by rumours." Hutchinson was to have occasion not 
long after this to mourn that some of the things that 
he had written came back again, but in a more pow- 
erful form than mere rumors. 

One of the results of the doings of March 5th, was 
that the king made Boston harbor the rendezvous 
for all his ships stationed in North America, and di- 
rected that the Castle should be garrisoned by his 
troops, instead of by those of the province. Hutchin- 
son lost no time in giving up the keys of the fortress 
to Colonel Dalrymple, though the act was a direct 
contravention of the charter, and while the lieutenant- 
governor looked upon his prompt action as a means 
of giving him favor at home, and of furthering his 
design to get the appointment as successor of Ber- 
nard, as well as a sure step towards armed coercion, 
Adams saw in it a stab at the public liberties and an 
opportunity for stirring up the town and the province 
against the government. Both obtained what they 
expected. It was but a few months before Hutch- 
inson received a commission as governor, with the 



A ROSE-COLORED PICTURE. 323 

promise of a salary directly from the sovereign. This 
provision for the salary did not quiet the Bostonians; 
they looked upon it as making the governor an in- 
strument of the king in establishing " a perfect 
despotism," as Adams expressed it. 

Governor Hutchinson draws a rose-colored picture 
of the condition of affairs in Massachusetts at this 
time. There was certainly " a pause in politics," as 
Dr. Cooper wrote ; but Hutchinson said that " in no 
independent state in the world could the people have 
been more happy than they were in the government 
of Massachusetts Bay." The province, he asserted, 
w^as free from real evils, and felt so lightly the ordi- 
nary burdens that all people in a state of civilization 
must feel, that in order to keep up a spirit of discon- 
tent it was necessary to excite them by merely 
imaginary evils. Molasses and tea were the only 
articles that paid any tax of account ; more tea was 
annually imported into Massachusetts legally, in spite 
of the opposition to its use, than into all the other 
colonies, and the tax was so small that " the poor 
people in America drank the same tea in quality, at 
three shillings the pound, which the people in Eng- 
land drank at six shillings." The governor verily 
seemed to think that if the men and women of Bos- 
ton only had enough to eat and drink, they ought to 
be contented ; he had no sympathy with the feelings 
of men who did not relish the sight of ships-of-war in 
their harbor, and of red-coated soldiers in their streets, 
commanded and paid by other authorities than their 
own legislature, and apparently menacing the free- 
dom of their actions. He did not realize that a 



324 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

small tax laid upon an unwilling people bears harder 
than a heavy one that the same people assume of 
their own free-will. He had so long trained his per- 
ceptions to sympathize with a king, that he was 
unable to enter into the feelings of the people among 
whom he had been born and bred, and whose aspira- 
tions ought to have been his own. 

In pursuance of the order making Boston harbor 
a place of rendezvous for the English fleet, twelve 
war vessels arrived in August, 1771, and another op- 
portunity was afforded Samuel Adams for warning 
his fellow townsmen of the danger, that was rapidly 
approaching, of the " slavery " with which they were 
threatened. He told them that it was useless to en- 
deavor to console themselves because the duty was 
removed from all articles excepting tea, because, 
that remaining, it was plain that parliament proved 
its power to levy taxes, and if it was allowed that it 
had the right to take three pence because it pleased, 
the sovereign control of the purses was given up to 
it ; it was no better to have the charter taken away 
in parts than in the whole. " The liberties of our 
country," he exclaimed, " the freedom of our civil 
constitution, are worth defending at all hazards ; and 
it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. 
We have received them as a fair inheritance from 
our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us 
with toil and danger, and expense of treasure and 
blood, and transmitted them to us with care and 
diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of in- 
famy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, 
if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by 



CONFLICTING VIEWS. 325 

violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of 
them by the artifices of false and designing men." 
Mr. Adams did not confine himself, as some others 
did, to denunciations of governmental measures, and 
appeals to patriotic motives ; he went much farther, 
and denied all right on the part of parliament to tax 
the colonies, to control their legislatures, or in any 
way to exercise authority over them. 

In January, 1772, Hutchinson wrote: "Except 
in this town, there is now a general appearance of 
contentment throughout the province " ; for Boston 
always had to be excepted in such statements, though 
there were many of her citizens who did not burn 
with the ardor of Samuel Adams.* Otis would not 
follow him in denying all parliamentary authority ; 
Dr. Church, the subsequent traitor, was, as Hutchin- 
son said, " now a writer on the side of government " ; 
even John Adams, who had removed back to Brain- 
tree, had devoted himself anew to his law practice, 
avoided politics, political clubs, and town-meetings, 
even refused to deliver the address on the second re- 
currence of the day of the " Massacre," and thought 
that there was not spirit enough to bring the ques- 

* The king and his ministers preferred to believe Bernard and 
Hutchinson rather than Povvnall, and thus they were quite deceived 
in regard to the true state of public opinion. Hutchinson, for exam- 
ple, " repeatedly assured the ministry that a union of the colonies was 
utterly impracticable ; that the people were greatly divided among 
themselves in every colony : and that there could be no doubt that all 
America would submit, and that they must, and, moreover, would 
soon " (1774). Governor Pownall insisted that all the measures against 
America were planned and pushed on by Bernard and Hutchinson. 
See the " Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr.," pages 197, 205, 211, 215. 



326 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

tion to a decision, that there would never be a 
redress of American grievances, but a " trimming." 
There was Joseph Warren, however, who could hold 
an audience spellbound, as he did when he stood up 
in the South meeting-house, March 5th, of this year, 
and uttered patriotic words on the subject of the 
connexion between England and the colonies; and 
there were others like him ready to unite for the 
protection of right. Samuel Adams had, as we 
know, long held in abeyance a plan for concentra- 
ting the influence of all who were like-minded with 
him,* and he thought this a proper time to take 
a step in that direction. His plans were far-reach- 
ing, but at this time he proposed to make an humble 
beginning, to avoid opposition. As long ago as 1766, 
he had written to Gadsden, of South Carolina, that 
he longed for a union and a correspondence between 
the merchants throughout the continent ; and, in 
1 77 1, he wrote again that when the liberty of one is 
invaded the liberty of all is in danger, and that he 
thought it would be wisdom for the colonists to cor- 
respond with one another in the times of distress. 
All the time, from 1764 to 1774, he was using his 
influence in favor of concert of action between the 
provinces. 

The king had established a salary for the governor, 
and it was known that the judges were likewise to be 
made independent of the people. Boston thought it 
proper to hold a town-meeting to censure the gov- 
ernor for accepting a salary, and to ask him if it was 
true that the judges were to be paid in the same 

* See chapter xx. for reference to the stamp-act Congress. 



A COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 



i-V 



manner. John Hancock was moderator of the meet- 
ing, which was held October 28th. The governor 
gave unsatisfactory repHes to the question pro- 
pounded to him, and the freemen became restless. 
Then Adams rose, and moved that " A committee 
of correspondence be appointed, to consist of twen- 
ty-one persons, to state the rights of the colonists, 
and of this province in particular, as men and 
Christians and as subjects ; and to communicate and 
publish the same to the several towns and to the 
world, as the sense of this town, with the infring-e- 
ments and violations thereof that have been, or from 
time to time may be made." The discussion on this 
resolution was prolonged into the evening, and it is 
said that it was not agreed to until ten o'clock, 
though then almost every voter gave his assent. A 
committee was appointed, consisting, as Hutchinson 
wrote to Pownall, of deacons, atheists, and black- 
hearted fellows whom one would not choose to meet 
in the dark, though other historians consider them 
reputable Boston citizens. Whatever was the char- 
acter of the members of the committee, it gave life 
to the Revolution, and enabled the colonists soon to 
act with order and system, instead of irregularly and 
inharmoniously. 

The committee reported at a meeting held in 
Faneuil Hall, November 20th, presenting a state- 
ment of rights, a statement of grievances, and a 
letter to the other towns. The letter asked for a 
free expression of sentiment from each town, and 
rhetorically expressed the confidence that the people 
were not prepared to " doze, or sit supinely indiffer- 



328 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

ent on the brink of destruction, while the iron hand 
of oppression was daily tearing the choicest fruit 
from the fair tree of liberty, planted by their worthy 
predecessors, at the expense of their treasure, and 
abundantly watered with their blood." Six hundred 
copies of the report were printed and sent out, ac- 
cording to the plan. Many persons thought it was 
a trifling and unnecessary scheme ; but the towns 
appointed similar committees, and through them re- 
echoed the sentiments of Samuel Adams, that the 
report comprised. The tories ridiculed the affair, 
because some of the meetings of the interior towns 
were slightly attended ; but when it was found that 
almost all of them had adopted the measures pro- 
posed, they ceased to think that there was any thing 
" ludicrous " about the scheme, and one of the ablest 
of them declared that it was " the foulest, subtlest, 
and most venomous serpent ever issued from the egg 
of sedition." John Adams wrote of the feeling else- 
where : " They are still quiet at the south, and at 
New York they laugh at us." In the south there 
was, indeed, much jealous fear of Boston. Josiah 
Quincy, Jr., met at Charleston in March, 1773, an 
expression of this feeling in the words of Mr. Thomas 
Shirley, " a well-bred and learned but very warm and 
irascible " gentleman, who said to him : " Boston 
aims at nothing less than the sovereignty of this 
whole continent, — I know it. . . . Take away 
the power and superintendence of Britain, and the 
colonies must submit to the next power. Boston 
would soon have that." 

Thus, said Hutchinson, "all of a sudden, from a 



THE TOWNS EXPRESS SENTIMENTS. 329 

state of peace, order, and general contentment, as 
some expressed themselves, the province more or 
less from one end to the other was brought into a 
state of contention, disorder, and general dissatis- 
faction ; or, as others would have it, was roused 
from stupor and inaction to sensibility and activity." 
The town of Gorham wrote : " It is better to risk 
our lives and fortunes in the defence of our rights, 
civil and religious, than to die by piecemeal in slav- 
ery." The selectmen of Petersham declared that 
" The late appointment of salaries to be paid to our 
superior court judges, whose creation, pay, and 
commission depend upon mere will and pleasure, 
completes a system of bondage equal to any ever 
before fabricated by the combined efforts of the 
ingenuity, malice, fraud, and wickedness of man ; 
that it is the first and highest social duty of this 
people to consider of, and seek ways and means for 
a speedy redress of these mighty grievances and 
intolerable wrongs, and that for the obtaining this 
end this people are warranted by the laws of God 
and nature in the use of every rightful art and energy 
of policy, stratagem, and force." 

These meetings, says the biographer of Samuel 
Adams, " constitute the highest mark the town- 
meeting has ever touched. Never before and never 
since, have Anglo-Saxon men, in lawful folk-mote 
assembled, given utterance to thoughts and feelings 
so fine in themselves and so pregnant with great 
events. To each letter stand affixed the names of 
the committee in autograph. This awkward scrawl 
was made by the fist of a Cape Ann fisherman, on 



330 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

shore for the day to do at town-meeting the duty 
his fellows had laid upon him ; the hand that wrote 
this other was cramped from the scythe-handle, as 
its possessor mowed an intervale on the Connecti- 
cut; this blotted signature, where smutted fingers 
have left a black stain, was written by a blacksmith 
of Middlesex, turning aside a moment from forging 
a barrel that was to do duty at Lexington." * 

The result of the committee's first effort was un- 
expected, and completely astonished loyalist and 
whig. Hutchinson, who had written to Pownall 
that the scheme was " foolish," and that the com- 
mittee must necessarily make itself ridiculous, f now 
became " greatly alarmed with so sudden and unex- 
pected a change in the state of affairs " ; and, as he 
records in his history, " was greatly perplexed with 
doubts concerning his own conduct on the occasion." 
He said that the measure, if pursued to its end, 
must cause " not a return of the colonies to their 
former submission, but a total separation from the 
kingdom, by their independency." He alleged, at 
about this time, that no line could be drawn between 
an acknowledgment of the authority of parliament 
and absolute independence, and it is difficult to con- 
trovert his assertion, though this is what the people 
of Massachusetts had been endeavoring to do from 
the year 1630, when they first began to establish on 

* " Samuel Adams," by James K. Hosmer, page 202. 

f In liis fatuity Hutchinson wrote, February 23, 1773 . "I have 
stopped the progress of the towns for the present ; and I think I 
have stopped the prosecution of another part of the scheme, which 
was for the assembly to invite every other assembly upon the Con- 
tinent to assent to the same principles." 



HUTCHINSON IN A DILEMMA. 33 1 

American soil a government that professed to de- 
pend upon the charter and not upon parliament for 
its authority. 

In his doubt as to what steps he ought to pursue, 
Hutchinson saw that he was in danger of being 
abused both at home and in Boston, but it was plain 
that unless he should act in some way, he would be 
properly accused in England of conniving at the 
proceedings which he confessed were unwarrantable 
and threatening. He knew that if he were to bring 
the matter before the general court he would precipi- 
tate a discussion that would tax his abilities, and raise 
a flame that it would be difHcult to suppress. He 
decided, however, to call the court together, and in 
January, 1773, he opened its sessions with a speech 
in which he argued for parliamentary supremacy in 
a cool and able manner, reviewing past history, with 
which he was fully acquainted, and assuming suc- 
cessfully an air of candor and moderation that gave 
a profound effect to his words. The speech was 
published in the papers and spread throughout the 
colony and in England, the tories thinking it unan- 
swerable, and the patriots being in some cases stag- 
gered by its arguments. It was followed, after a 
sufificient delay, by a paper, probably prepared by 
Samuel Adams, — handed to the governor by that 
gentleman, at least, — which caused Hutchinson to 
fear that he had made a mistake in admitting that 
the authority of parliament was a matter about 
which it was possible to raise a doubt, or around 
which a discussion could be created. The governor 
replied, and the court retorted, but neither party was 



332 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

able to produce conviction in the mind of the other ; 
Adams, however, succeeded in placing Hutchinson 
in the wrong, by making him sensible that it was he 
who had raised the unfruitful controversy. The 
court was prorogued on the sixth of March, one day 
after another celebration of the " Massacre " had 
occurred in the South meeting-house. At that time 
Dr. Benjamin Church delivered an eloquent and 
logical oration to a crowded audience. In this ad- 
dress the speaker said that he rejoiced that Massa- 
chusetts had been alarmed by the committees of 
correspondence, that the people had been led to 
esteem their rights under the charter to be the " ark 
of God to New England." He prophesied that 
some future congress was to be the " glorious source 
of the salvation of America," and declared that the 
Amphictyons of Greece, who formed the diet or 
great council of the states, were " an excellent 
model for the rising Americans." 

It was just at this time that Hutchinson wrote the 
words about the influence of Boston, and the cor- 
porate powers of the Massachusetts towns, to which 
reference has been made,* in which he exposed the 
strength of the opposition that he had to face. The 
governor had the sagacity to see the great influence 
of the towns, and he reiterated his views of the 
subject to his different correspondents. He much 
wished that some change could be made in the char- 
ter that would deprive the town-meetings of their 
powers, and thus keep from the people the constant 
mindfulness of their rights. The town of Boston 

* Letter of March 7th, 1772 to Gage, see page 91. 



BOSTON COMES TO THE FRONT. 333 

now proceeded to take the part in the discussion of 
provincial matters that the governor asserted that it 
was accustomed to take, by assembhng ahnost im- 
mediately after the adjournment of the general 




GOVERNOR THOMAS HUTCHINSON. 

After a portrait in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, once the 

property of Jonathan Mayhew. 

court, for the purpose of considering the misrepre- 
sentations of the governor in his late messages, 
which related to the meeting of the town at which the 
committees of correspondence had been appointed. 



334 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

While Adams was thus engaged in local affairs, so 
deeply that he could give no attention to the plan 
that he had so long hoped to see realized, for a com- 
mittee of correspondence uniting the different col- 
onies, the House of Burgesses of Virginia, under 
the lead of such patriots as Patrick Henry and 
Richard Henry Lee, adopted resolutions providing 
for a system of intercolonial correspondence. The 
resolutions reached Boston in time for action at the 
town-meeting called for the purpose of choosing 
delegates to the general court, and a vote was passed 
recommending the resolutions to the serious consid- 
eration of the court. One of the arguments men- 
tioned by the town for the restoration of harmony 
with Great Britain must have made some of the 
delegates smile, for it was gravely stated that if 
England were cut off from her connexion with the 
American continent, she " must eventually fall a 
prey to her numerous and jealous neighbors." 

The general court adopted the Virginia plan al- 
most unanimously, towards the end of May, and thus 
there were two committees of correspondence, the 
one uniting each little hamlet and every large town 
in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and the 
other extending its insidious influence to every legis- 
lature of the thirteen colonies, and through them 
stirring up every patriotic citizen on the continent. 
Of this action of Massachusetts and Virginia, Hutch- 
inson said that it "ought to have been considered as 
an avowal of independency, because it could be justi- 
fied only on the principle of independency." It was, 
he asserts, a most glaring attempt to alter the con- 



MYSTERIOUS LETTERS. 335 

stitution of the colonies, against which England 
ought to have made a stand ; but an opinion still 
prevailed that independency was not the object, and 
that reasonable concession would lead to due sub- 
mission, " though advances were every day making 
to render reconciliation more difficult." 

Among the advances that were making reconcilia- 
tion more difficult may be included an " exposure " 
made at this time of some of the private correspond- 
dence of the governor, which had by some means 
fallen into the hands of Benjamin Franklin, then 
agent of Massachusetts in London, and by him had 
been sent to Boston. Hancock, who was apparently 
or really indignant at the contents of these letters, 
determined to make them public. He took occasion 
one day to announce mysteriously that an important 
disclosure was to be made within forty-eight hours ; 
well knowing that the spectators in the gallery, that 
had been set apart for the public by the suggestion 
of Otis, would spread the information everywhere. 
The press took up the matter, and reported that 
dark things were to be brought to light which would 
" make tyrannical rulers tremble, and give occasion 
for the whole people to bless the providence of God, 
who causeth the wicked man to fall into the pit that 
he hath digged for another." When the due time 
arrived, Samuel Adams asked to have the galleries 
cleared, which, of course, made the public more than 
ever anxious to know what the great matter was 
that would cause so deep a convulsion. The letters 
were then read, the injunction being given that they 
were not to be copied or printed in whole or in part. 



336 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

They were given to a committee, which reported 
that they tended and were designed to overthrow 
the constitution of the government and to introduce 
arbitrary power into the province. The deductions 
thus made from the governor's confidential com- 
munications to his friends in England are scarcely 
such as calm readers think legitimate, and they can 
only be accounted for by supposing that there Avas 
a deliberate plan to render the governor odious ; or 
that the patriots had become so deeply filled with 
the belief that all representatives of the crown were 
plotters against the liberties of America, that they 
allowed themselves to be led captive by their too 
vivid imaginings. Whatever the cause, and what- 
ever the motives which actuated Adams, Hancock, 
and the rest, the effort to base accusations on the 
letters thus theatrically brought to the public notice 
proved successful. It was voted that the governor 
had lost the confidence of the people, and was an 
unsuitable instrument for promoting the interests of 
the king and the colonists, and that it would be 
promotive of good will, and of the good of His Ma- 
jesty's loyal and affectionate people, if he were 
removed from office. This vote, as well as the letters 
themselves, was afterwards printed and distributed 
for the purpose of exciting the colonists against 
Hutchinson. 

News reached Boston in the spring of this year 
that the East India Company, which was embar- 
rassed by the accumulation of tea in England, owing 
to the refusal of the Americans to buy it, had in- 
duced parliament to permit its exportation to 



''THE DETESTED TEA," 337 

America without the payment of the usual duty. 
This was intended to bribe the colonists to buy ; for 
there had been a duty both in England and in 
America. That in England was six pence a pound, 
that in America, three pence. Ships were laden and 
sent to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles- 
ton, and they were now expected to arrive in a short 
time. Samuel Adams felt that the hour had arrived 
for his Continental Congress, and he proposed that 
one should be called, for the purpose of drawing up 
and publishing to the world a Bill of Rights, of pro- 
viding for an annual congress, and of choosing an 
ambassador to reside at the British court ; for he 
thought that there was no scheme for preserving the 
liberties of the people, except by forming " an 
American Commonwealth." Though Adams labored 
earnestly to lead others to see as he saw, his longing 
for a general congress was not to be satisfied yet. 

As late as the end of July, 1773, George Clymer, 
of Philadelphia, wrote to Josiah Quincy, Jr., that the 
idea of American liberty seemed " to have taken 
but shallow root in some places, particularly at New 
York, where all political principles are truly as 
unfixed as the wind. One year sees the New 
Yorkers," he adds, " champions for Liberty, and the 
next hugging their chains. Our Pennsylvanians I 
take to be in the mean betwixt both. I cannot call 
it the golden meany This state of affairs was soon 
to change. 

Though the Congress was not held, all Boston, 
and finally all America, was excited intensely by the 
expectation of the arrival of the tea-ships. Arthur 



338 STIRRIXG UP A CONTINENT, 

Lee wrote to Adams that in his opinion the intro- 
duction of the tea ought to be opposed ; but said 
that he was ready to be overruled by his corre- 
spondent. Adams had no intention of opposing such 
a plan. He influenced the Bostonians to adopt it. 
The agents who had been appointed to receive the 
tea were called upon to resign ; and as they refused, 
a town-meeting was appointed for November 5th, at 
which the demand was renewed ; it was again re- 
fused. Again the town came together, and again 
the demand was renewed, but the commissioners 
still refused to resign. The reply was at last voted 
"not satisfactory," and the meeting immediately 
broke up. This sudden action, which appeared pre- 
concerted, struck terror into the commissioners. 
There was nothing more for the town to do, and the 
committee of correspondence, in connexion with 
those of Cambridge and of other towns near by, 
took the management of affairs. 

On the twenty-eighth of November, 1773, which 
was Sunday, the first tea-ship (the Dartmouth) en- 
tered the harbor. The following morning the citizens 
were informed by placard that the " worst of plagues, 
the detested tea," had actually arrived, and that a 
meeting was to be held at nine in the morning, at 
Faneuil Hall, for the purpose of making "a united 
and successful resistance to this last, worst, and 
most destructive measure of administration." The 
Cradle of Liberty was not large enough to contain 
the crowd that was called together. Adams rose and 
made a stirring motion expressing determination 
that the tea should not be landed, and it was unani- 



BREATHLESSLY VVAITLNG. 339 

mously agreed to. The meeting then adjourned to 
the Old South meeting-house, where the motion was 
repeated, and again adopted without an opposing 
voice. The owner of the ship protested in vain that 
the proceedings were illegal ; a watch of twenty-five 
persons was set, to see that the intentions of the 
citizens were not evaded, and the meeting adjourned 
to the following morning. The throng at that time 
was as great as usual, and while the deliberations 
were going on, a message was received from the 
governor, through the sheriff, ordering them to cease 
their proceedings. It was voted not to follow the 
advice, and the sheriff was hissed and obliged to 
retreat discomfited. It was formally resolved that 
any person importing tea from England should be 
deemed an enemy to his country, and it was declared 
that at the risk of their lives and properties the 
landing of the tea should be prevented, and its 
return effected. 

It was necessary that some positive action should 
be taken in regard to the tea within twenty days 
from its arrival, or the collector of customs would 
confiscate ships and cargoes. The time for this was 
fast approaching, and all parties concerned appreci- 
ated the importance of every moment. The govern- 
or felt that he was entirely impotent ; his council 
could not be depended upon ; and Hancock, who 
was in command of the cadets, declined to act, 
because of the danger to which he would be subject. 
No justice of the peace even was ready to do the 
governor's bidding; he stood firmly for prerogative, 
but still argued and pleaded, though he was told 



340 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

that he was " officious," and his acts useless. The 
twenty days would expire on the sixteenth of 
December. On the fourteenth a crowded meeting 
was held at the Old South, and the importer was 
enjoined to apply for a clearance to allow his vessel 
to return with its cargo. He applied, but the col- 
lector refused to give an answer until the following 
day. The meeting therefore adjourned to the six- 
teenth, the last day before confiscation would be 
legal, and before the tea would be placed under 
protection of the ships of war in the harbor. 

There was another early morning meeting, and 
seven thousand people thronged about the meeting- 
house, all filled with a sense of the fact that some- 
thing notable was to occur. The importer appeared 
and reported that the collector refused a clearance. 
He was then directed to ask the governor for a pass 
to enable him to sail by the Castle. Hutchinson had 
retreated to his mansion at Milton, and it would take 
some time to make the demand. The importer 
started out in the cold of a New England winter, 
apologized to his Excellency for his visit, but assured 
him that it was involuntary. He received a reply 
that no pass could be given him. By three o'clock 
the people gathered again at the meeting-house, but 
the importer had not arrived. The time was filled 
up by speeches; "Who knows," asked one, "how 
tea will mingle with salt water?" Josiah Quincy, 
Jr.,* spoke vigorously from the gallery against the 

* There were three persons of note bearing the colonial name 
Josiah in the Quincy family, viz. : Josiah, son of Judge Edmund, 
born in 1709 ; Josiah, junior, horn in 1744 ; and Josiah, afterwards 
mayor of Boston, and president of Harvard College, born in 1772. 




341 THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN ITS PRESENT CONDITION (HUII.T IN I72q). 



342 STIRRING UP A CONTINENT. 

British government, and Harrison Gray responded 
from the floor, warning "the young gentleman in 
the gallery " against the consequences of intemperate 
language. Quincy replied : "If the old gentleman 
on the floor intends by his warning to ' the young 
gentleman in the gallery,' to utter only a friendly 
voice in the spirit of paternal advice, I thank him. 
If his object be to terrify and intimidate, I despise 
him ! " As he spoke some men disguised as Indians 
entered, and he added : " I see the clouds which now 
rise thick and fast upon our horizon ; the thunders 
roll, and the lightnings play, and to the God who 
rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm I com- 
mit my country ! " 

It was six o'clock before the importer returned, 
and a few candles were brought in to relieve the fast- 
increasing darkness. He reported the governor's 
reply, and Samuel Adams rose and exclaimed : 
" This meeting can do nothing more to save the 
country!" In an instant there was a shout on the 
porch ; there was a war-whoop in response, and forty 
or fifty of the men disguised as Indians rushed out 
of the doors, down Milk Street towards Grifiin's 
(afterwards Liverpool) Wharf, where the vessels lay. 
The meeting was declared dissolved, and the throng 
followed their leaders, form.ing a determined guard 
about the wharf. The " Mohawks " entered the ves- 
sel ; there was tugging at the ropes ; there was break- 
ing of light boxes; there was pouring of precious 
tea into the waters of the harbor. For two or three 
hours the work went on, and three hundred and 
forty-two chests were emptied. Then, under the 



PHILADELPHIA REJOICES. 343 

light of the moon, the Indians marched to the sound 
of fife and drum to their homes, and the vast throng 
melted away, until not a man remained to tell of the 
deed. The committee of correspondence held a 
meeting the next day, and Samuel Adams and four 
others were appointed to prepare an account of the 
affair to be posted to other places. Paul Revere, 
who is said to have been one of the " Mohawks," 
was sent express to Philadelphia with the news, 
which was received at that place on the twenty-sixth. 
It was announced by ringing of bells, and there was 
every sign of joy. A meeting of citizens was held, 
and the action was endorsed with claps and huzzas. 
One prominent gentleman wrote to Boston : "We 
all allow you have had greater trials than any of 
the colonies, and we wonder much of your great 
patience." The continent was universally stirred, at 
last. 




XXIV. 

WAR. 

" Our western brother had a dispute with his 
nurse about a cup of tea. She wanted to force the 
boy to drink it according to her own receipt. He 
said that he did not like it, and tliat it absolutely 
made him ill. After a good deal of sparring, she 
took up the birch rod and began to whip him with 
uncommon severity. He turned upon her in self- 
defence, showed her to the outside of the nursery 
door, and never more allowed her to meddle with 
his affairs." Such are the words of an English trav- 
eller who visited America a generation after the 
Boston Tea-Party.* The nurse and the western 
brother had now had the dispute about the cup of 
tea, but it remains to see how the birch rod was ap- 
plied, and how the nursery door was shut upon the 
nurse. 

We may be sure that when the news of the doings 
of the evening of December i6th reached England 
there was considerable excitement. Parliament was 
in session, and there was no need of losing time in 
applying the rod to the rebellious boy across the 

^Charles Walerton, quoted in \\'insoi's "Memorial History," vol. 
iii., page 51. 

344 



DELENDA EST CARTHAGO / 345 

sea. It was declared that the unruly and defiant spirit 
of Boston must be checked at all hazards, or there 
would be an end to the rule of Britain in America. 
This sentiment was far from universal in England. 
Private interest led many to be fast friends of Amer- 
ica, but they were unable to make their influence 
felt. Many sensible Englishmen besides those whose 
voices were heard in parliament justified and even 
applauded the action of Boston, and denounced the 
desperate measures of the ministry. " The mer- 
chants are alarmed," wrote Josiah Quincy, Jr., in Jan- 
uary, 1775, from London, " the manufacturers are in 
motion, the artificers and handicraftsmen are in 
amaze, and the lower ranks of the community are 
suffering " ; and they were petitioning parliament 
to the advantage of America, prodded by self-interest 
and misery.* 

The king sent a message to parliament, in which 
he denounced the outbreak at Boston as an inter- 
ference with British trade and an outrage on the 
English constitution, and a bill was presented for 
the punishment of the town. In the debate that 
followed it was said : " The town of Boston ought 
to be knocked about their ears and destroyed. De- 
lenda est Carthago ! You will never meet with proper 
obedience to the laws of this country until you have 
destroyed that nest of locusts." Lord George Ger- 
maine, in introducing the bill, said : " Nor can I think 
he will do a better thing than to put an end to their 
town-meetings. I would not have men of a mercan- 
tile cast every day collecting themselves together and 
* " Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jf-," pp- 251, 255, etc. 



346 fVA/?. 

debating about political matters. I would have them 
follow their occupations as merchants, and not con- 
sider themselves as ministers of that country. . . . 
The whole are the proceedings of a tumultuous and 
riotous rabble, who ought, if they had the least pru- 
dence, to follow their mercantile employments, and 
not trouble themselves with politics and govern- 
ment, which they do not understand." Lord North 
considered these sentiments " worthy of a great 
mind," and the fact shows how little the real state 
of affairs in Boston was understood in England at 
that time, though it also proves that the strength of 
the Americans stood in their democratic gatherings, 
in which the average of the wisdom of all still seems 
to be greater than the wisdom of the wisest among 
them. 

Parliament passed an act closing the port of the 
doomed city during the pleasure of the king, and 
giving the army and the fleet directions to see that 
it was enforced ; it was determined that the council- 
lors, who had before been chosen by the general 
court, should be appointed by the king ; the superior 
judges were to hold office during the king's pleasure, 
and receive their salaries from him ; the inferior 
judges were to be removable by the governor ; no 
town-meetings were to be permitted except such as 
might be convoked by the governor for the discus- 
sion of such business as he might allow; soldiers, 
magistrates, and ofificers of the revenue, charged with 
capital offences, were to be tried in England or Nova 
Scotia ; provision was made for the legal quartering 
of troops upon the towns ; Salem was made the 



ADAMS DEFENDS THE BOSTONIANS. 347 

capital of the province, and the port of Boston was 
closed. It was vainly thought that the power of 
parliament to make laws for the colonies in all cases 
whatsoever was now vindicated. 

The general court met in January, 1774. Hutch- 
inson made an opening speech, in which he avoided 
reference to the " tea-party," and to the fact that 
other shipments of the "detested herb" had been 
treated to salt-water baths, because he feared the 
response that he might meet from the deputies 
in their excited state. The governor contented 
himself by mentioning " such things only as were 
least likely to give room for any harsh or unkind 
return " ; that is, he brought up the general business 
and expressed the king's disapprobation of the sit- 
tings of the committees of correspondence during 
the recess of the court. This gave Adams an op- 
portunity to defend the committees and their action 
before the public, and to strengthen the faith of any 
who might be weak. He argued that, during the 
recesses of the court, the governor and other ofificers 
of the king were accustomed to correspond with the 
ministers and to concert measures grievous to the 
colonists, and urged that as the court met only at 
the pleasure of the governors (who therefore had the 
power to hinder any measures that the colonists 
might wish to carry for their protection), it could 
not be thought unreasonable or improper for the 
colonists to correspond with their agents, as well as 
with one another, to the end that their grievances 
might be so explained to his Majesty that, in his 
justice, he might afford them necessary relief. 



348 M^AJ?. 

The next move looked to the impeachment of the 
chief-justice, Peter Oliver, for accepting the salary 
promised by the king ; but the governor resolved to 
prorogue the court before action could be completed. 
He therefore prepared a message in which he said 
that he had passed over the illiberal charges and 
insinuations against himself, but that when they 
struck " directly at the honor and authority of the 
king and of the parliament, he was obliged to stop 
them from proceeding any farther." The house 
learned that such a message was coming, and barred 
its doors so effectually that the governor's secretary 
was unable to obtain admission. Meanwhile they 
perfected arrangements for their own pay, and passed 
a resolution to the effect that they had done all that 
they could do for the removal of the chief justice, 
and boldly declaring that the refusal of the governor 
to act with them was probably because he also re- 
ceived his support from the crown. They also directed 
the committee of correspondence to write to Benja- 
min Franklin, the colonial agent in London, on the 
public grievances. This was the last appeal made 
by Massachusetts for redress. 

The governor had previously prepared the court 
for prorogation, and had informed them that he had 
obtained the king's permission to go to England, 
and intended soon to go. The close of the session 
of the court left the management of affairs in the 
hands of the committee of correspondence, which 
had, indeed, directed the action of that body during 
its sessions. The governor's authority was now 
gone ; the course of law was stopped, because juries 



JOHN HANCOCK PUT FORWARD. 349 

would not act while Oliver held his office ; and 
Hutchinson declared that "the danger of revolt was 
daily increasing." At this juncture the lieutenant- 
governor, Andrew Oliver, died from a stroke of 
apoplexy, and Hutchinson postponed his departure, 
because his absence at the moment would have 
given up all power to the opponents of the king's 
government. 

The fifth of March arrived three days before the 
court closed its sessions, and a remarkable arrange- 
ment was made for its celebration. The town assem- 
bled at Faneuil Hall, but adjourned to the Old South, 
where the usual oration was delivered by John 
Hancock. It was the speaker's first public address, 
and was pronounced with dignity, grace, and ora- 
torical skill, but it was not the composition of the 
orator. Samuel Adams is reputed to have written it, 
and he "sat blandly by as moderator, while the 
people were deceived into the belief that the man 
who surpassed all in social graces and length of 
purse could thunder also from the rostrum with the 
best."'"* John Adams records that "the composi- 
tion, the pronunciation, the action, all exceeded the 
expectations of everybody." The oration closed 
with those impressive words of Habakkuk, from 
which Judge Sewall derived so much comfort on the 
dark day that Andros arrived: "Although the fig- 
tree shall not blossom," etc.f As the dignified speaker 
resumed his seat, a committee, of which Samuel 
Adams was chairman, was appointed to thank the 

* " Samuel Adams," by J. K. Hosmer, page 263. 
f See page 164. 



350 M'^A/?. 

orator in the name of the town for " his elegant and 
spirited oration," and to ask a copy for publication, 
while thanks were unanimously voted to Adams 
himself for " his good services as moderator." 
Hancock thus gained applause that he did not de- 
serve, and (what was most desired by " the mover 
of the puppets") was more firmly committed to 
the cause, while the people were impressed by the 
patriotism of a rich and well-born gentleman ; but 
it was a peculiar transaction.* 

The port was to be closed on the first of June. 
The news reached Boston on the tenth of May ; 
there was a convention of the committees of cor- 
respondence of eight neighboring towns, including 
Lexington and Cambridge, on the twelfth ; and a 
circular-letter, prepared by Samuel Adams, was issued, 
declaring that the town of Boston was suffering in 
" the common cause," and that " all should be united 
in opposition to this violation of the liberties of all." 

* This is not the only occasion, if history does not malign him, on 
which Hancock availed himself of the help of another in literary 
composition. When the adoption of the federal constitution was 
under consideration in Poston, in 17S8, he was much in doubt as to 
his course, and, in order to avoid discussion, remained at home, as 
was usual with him on such occasions, wrap]>ed in flannel, suffering 
from, or affecting to suffer from, the gout. He was flattered into the 
belief that " the salvation of the nation " rested upon him, by some 
persons interested in the adoption of the constitution, and after much 
urging he appeared in the convention, (which was in session in the 
Federal Street church, by adjournment from the Town House,) car- 
ried in the arms of several young gentlemen, and asked permission 
to read a speech which he said he was unable to make in any other 
manner. He then read a speech which had been written for him by 
Theophilus Parsons, and w hen he concluded one of his friends hastily 
took the manuscript from him, that the handwriting might not be 
observed. (See WelK' " Life of Sauuicl Adams," vol. iii., page 25S.) 



POWDER HASTILY PURCHASED. 35 I 

Military companies were formed, and everywhere 
men were assiduous in learning the use of firearms; 
though, as Hutchinson says, " not under the ofificers of 
the regiments to which they belonged," but " under 
ofificers of their own choosing." Five hundred 
barrels of gunpowder were purchased, ostensibly 
" for His Majesty's safety in the service of the prov- 
ince," and it was plain that a conflict was only to be 
avoided by the most judicious measures on the part 
of the royal ofificers. A town-meeting was held on 
the thirteenth, so promptly did one act follow another, 
at which it was voted, against the opposition of the 
tories who came out to confuse the public counsels, 
that the salvation of the liberties of America was 
to be obtained by a joint resolution of all the 
colonies to stop all importations from and exporta- 
tions to England, and that, " on the other hand, if 
they continue their exports and imports, there is 
high reason to fear that fraud, power, and the most 
odious oppression will rise triumphant over right, 
justice, social happiness, and freedom." The day of 
this town-meeting was made memorable by the 
arrival of the new governor. General Gage. Paul 
Revere carried this manifesto of the town to Phila- 
delphia, reaching that place on this occasion in six 
days, and responses of the most encouraging char- 
acter began immediately to come to Boston, offering 
help, assuring her that she was considered as " suffer- 
ing in the common cause," and calling for a congress 
of the colonies.* 

* John Adams wrote to his wife : "We live, my dear soul, in an 
age of trial. What will be the consequence, I know not. The town 
of Boston, for aught I can see, must suffer martyrdom ; it must ex- 



352 iVA/^. 

Gage had been instructed to act with promptness 
against the leaders ; but he was a man of moderation,* 
and feared the effect of any decided action before 
he had brought together troops enough to ensure 
himself against a popular rising, though the impres- 
sion was general among Englishmen that Americans 
were all cowards and poltroons. The general court 
met on the twenty-sixth of May, and on the first of 
June was adjourned to Salem, by General Gage. 
Hutchinson left that morning for England. At 
noon the port of Boston was closed ; no ferry-boat 
could start forCharlestown, no vessel sail for London ; 
the bells were tolled, and there were profuse signs 
of mourning. Even in Philadelphia business stopped, 
and in Virginia the day was observed by fasting and 
prayer. Bancroft paints a graphic picture of the 
transformation of the busy town into a place of 
idleness and want: "No anchor could be weighed, 
no sail unfurled, no vessel so much as launched from 
the stocks " ; the king had changed the " busy work- 
shops into scenes of compulsory idleness, and the 
most skilful naval artisans in the world, with the 
keenest eye for forms of beauty and speed," were 
forced by act of parliament to fold their hands. 
" Want scowled on the laborer, as he sat with his 

yi'ire ; and our principal consolation is that it dies in a noble cause, — 
the cause of truth, of virtue, of liberty, of humanity, and that it will 
probably have a glorious resurrection to greater wealth, splendor, and 
power than ever." May 12, 1774. 

* Joseph Warren considered Gage "a man of honest, upright 
principles, and one desirous of accommodating the differences be- 
tween Great Britain and her colonies in a just and honorable way," 
though he confessed that he wrote an "ill-judged" answer to the 
provincial congress. 



THE PORT OF BOSTON SHUT UP. 353 

wife and children at his board. The sailor roamed 
the streets Hstlessly without hope of employment." 

The law was enforced with a rigor that went beyond 
the intentions of its authors. It went hard with 
Boston ; but the people of Philadelphia sent her 
sympathy, and gifts were offered from far and near. 
South Carolina sent two hundred barrels of rice, 
and promised to make the gift a thousand ; Washing- 
ton headed a subscription paper in Fairfax County, 
Virginia, with fifty pounds ; Wilmington, N. C, 
raised two thousand pounds currency in a few days ; 
flour, cattle, sheep, fish, came from New England 
towns ; Quebec sent over a thousand bushels of 
wheat ; and Augusta County, Virginia, offered one 
hundred and thirty-seven barrels of flour. Salem 
and other ports were open, and received all that was 
sent, conveying it overland to the distressed town ; 
while the Bostonians themselves endeavored to smile 
at the strange fact that they were " seventeen miles 
from a seaport." 

There were a large number of delegates present at 
the meeting of the court at Salem ; and business was 
begun, after listening to Governor Gage's speech, by 
protesting against the removal, and then arrange- 
ments were made by Adams and those in sympathy 
with him for the selection of delegates to the con- 
gress that was to be held in Philadelphia, for which 
it was intended that Boston should make the plans. 
Adams proceeded with secrecy, and on the seven- 
teenth of June, when he thought all was ready, after 
locking the door and putting the key into his pocket, 
he submitted resolutions assigning September ist as 



354 ^^J^- 

the day, and Philadelphia, " or any other place 
that should be decided upon," as the place for 
the congress. Five delegates were chosen, and five 
hundred pounds were provided for their expenses. 
In the midst of the discussion, which began by an 
uproar at the bold and, to some, unexpected sugges- 
tion, a member, feigning illness, managed to get out of 
the room and to give Gage information of what was 
going on. The governor immediately sent his sec- 
retary with a brief message dissolving the assembly. 
The closed door made his entrance impossible, and 
the messenger stood on the stairway and read the 
impotent proclamation to a few loungers. When 
Adams was ready, the door was opened, the proro- 
gation was allowed, and there was no longer a 
general court in Massachusetts. 

While the sleepy town of Salem was agitated b}' 
these proceedings there was a town-meeting in Boston 
(June 17th) over which John Adams presided. It was 
called for the purpose of providing employment for 
the poor, and to talk about paying for the tea that 
had been destroyed.* Though there had been two 
opinions on the propriety of paying for the tea, and 
though Franklin thought best to take such a concili- 
atory step, the meeting was firm and unanimous in 
asserting that Boston was willing to endure the 

* Owing to the fact that the citizens of Boston no longer had the 
right to hokl town-meetings at their jjleasure, this one, known as tlie 
Port Bill Meeting, was not dissolved, hut simply "adjourned," 
in order that when another meeting should be found serviceable, 
it would not be necessary to ask Governor Ciage's permission to hold 
it. The "adjourned" meeting was finally held on the day appointed 
for the celebration of the ^Tas';acrc, March 6, 1775. 



THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES. 355 

worst rather than surrender any right. A memora- 
ble meeting was held at Dr. Joseph Warren's house 
that evening, and the hearts of those who were 
present were cheered by the intelligence from 
Salem, by letters from Baltimore and New York, and 
by the news found in the public journals. 

Congress met at Philadelphia, September 5th, and 
remained in session until October 26th. After it had 
adjourned John Dickinson wrote to Josiah Quincy, Jr.: 
" I now congratulate you on the hearty union of all 
America from Nova Scotia to Georgia, in the common 
cause. If it be possible the return of the members 
into the several colonies will make them still more firm. 
The most peaceable provinces are now animated." Dr. 
Charles Chauncy wrote in November : " The colonies 
are marvellously united, and determined to act as 
one in the defence of this town and province." In 
fact " Boston must be regarded as suffering in the 
common cause ! " became the popular expression of 
colonial sentiment. Mr. Adams considered the 
Congress to be a collection of the greatest men upon 
the continent, in point of abilities, virtues, and 
fortunes. They looked upon tories as the most 
despicable animals in crea.tion, to be compared only 
to " spiders, toads, and snakes." W.hile this was 
occurring, the patriots in Boston convened in a 
county meeting,* first at Dedham, and then at 
Milton, where they passed the " Suffolk Resolves," 
as they are called, in which it was declared that no 

* This was done on account of the difficulty and danger of holding 
meetings in Boston. See "A History of Boston," l)y Caleb If. Snow, 
M.D., page 298. 



356 WAR. 

officers appointed by parliament were to be acknowl- 
edged ; that no more moneys were to be paid to the 
royal treasurer ; that friends of the people should be 
put in command of the militia ; and that obedience 
should be given to the acts of the continental 
congress. A provincial congress was favored, and 
threats were made of seizing all crown officers as 
hostages, in case of any arrest by the governor for 
political reasons. The gathering expressed a deter- 
mination to act on the defensive, as long as reason 
and self-preservation would allow, — " and no longer." 
A system of couriers was established at the same 
meeting, to communicate promptly with correspond- 
ing committees and with town officers, and the bold 
resolves were sent to the congress at Philadelphia, 
by Paul Revere, who had been twice before em- 
ployed on like errands. They were received with 
applause and commended to the country. 

Gage was not an uninterested spectator of all these 
acts. He was busily collecting troops and ammuni- 
tion, and building fortifications and barracks ; and he 
thus stimulated the Americans not only to watchful- 
ness, but to indignant opposition, for the powder 
that he took was the property of the province, and 
the men who .assisted him were looked upon as base 
renegades. On the first of September two hundred 
of his men embarked on a marauding excursion from 
Long Wharf, and went up the Mystic. They took 
two hundred and twelve half-barrels of powder from 
Quarry Hill, and a detachment captured two field- 
pieces in Cambridge. The next day several thousand 
people assembled at the latter town armed to repel 



THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. 357 

the force, but as it had disappeared, they laid their 
pieces aside and visited the houses of certain tories, 
whom they obHged to forswear all connivance with 
the royal government in the future. 

The acts of Gage were distorted by rumor, and one 
day the country around was aroused by a story that 
the fleet and army were firing into the town of 
Boston. It is said that thirty thousand people 
collected from a radius of thirty miles about, to take 
part in the action. The rumor reached Philadelphia 
as actual news, and had the effect of uniting the 
delegates and hastening their action. Mr. John 
Adams wrote from congress September eighth : " We 
are waiting with the utmost anxiety and impatience 
for further intelligence. The effect of the news we 
have both upon the congress and the inhabitants of 
this city was very great. Great indeed! Every gentle- 
man seems to consider the bombardment of Boston 
as the bombardment of the capital of his own 
province. Our deliberations are grave and serious 
indeed." 

Gage had called a meeting of the general court to 
convene at Salem October 5th, but the tumults that 
came on led him to issue a proclamation, on the 
twenty-eighth of September, proroguing the body. 
The members, however, met at the time appointed, 
but after a little delay adjourned to Concord and 
organized themselves into a " provincial congress." 
The new body held its sessions for three weeks, during 
which time steps were taken to provide the towns 
with ammunition and stores, and to organize the 
militia. The governor in his impotence denounced 



358 PVA/e. 

the congress, but it met again in spite of him in 
November, at Cambridge, and kept on with its work. 
It provided at this time for a "committee of safety," 
which became the real executive of Massachusetts, 
with power to procure stores, organize the militia, 
and generally to look out for the welfare of the 
people. Thus, in various ways, Massachusetts calmly 
prepared for any aggressive movement, taking every 
precaution, however, not to be aggressive herself. 
Minute-men were enrolled by the towns and carefully 
drilled and equipped. These soldiers were looked 
upon with disdain by the regulars under Gage, while 
some of them, who had been with Pepperell at 
Louisburg, ridiculed the earthworks on the Neck, 
which they compared disdainfully with the great 
stone walls that had proved no obstacle to their 
success in that memorable campaign. 

The second provincial congress convened at Cam- 
bridge on the first of February, 1775, with John 
Hancock as president, and proceeded to exercise 
the functions of the general court. It appropriated 
moneys for the purchase of warlike stores, selected 
ofifiicers for the command of the minute-men who 
might be brought into actual service, and appointed 
Samuel and John Adams, John Hancock, Robert 
Treat Paine, and Thomas Cushing delegates to the 
continental congress. Meantime, events crowded 
upon one another. The fifth of March came around 
again, and Dr. Warren craved the privilege of deliv- 
ering the customary address in the Old South. A 
warrant was issued for a town-meeting on March 
6th (the fifth being Sunday), in adjournment of the 



IVARREN ENTERS A WINDOW. 359 

Port Bill Meeting of June 17th of the previous year. 
Gage had now gathered a considerable force in Bos- 
ton. At the close of 1774 he had eleven regiments 
of infantry and four companies of artillery, and five 
hundred men were on duty every day to overawe 
the citizens. It required considerable nerve to speak 
in public at the time, for it was known that some 
attempt was to be made to interrupt the meeting on 
this hated anniversary. When forty British officers 
entered the building Adams asked the civilians occu- 
pying the front seats to vacate them, and seated the 
military men in their places. He was determined to 
put them in the wrong, in case of any disturbance. It 
was afterwards learned that an attempt was to have 
been made to seize the persons of Adams, Hancock, 
and Warren, and that a certain ensign had been ap- 
pointed to give the signal for the others by throwing 
an egg at Dr. Warren in the pulpit. The young 
fellow had a fall on his way to the meeting, which 
dislocated his knee and broke the &%%-, on which 
account the scheme failed. 

The oration was delivered by Warren without 
much interruption. He was obliged to enter the 
meeting-house through a window behind the high 
pulpit, and then, taking his handkerchief in his right 
hand, he began and ended without action. At one 
point an officer held up a few pistol bullets in his 
open palm ; Warren quietly dropped his handker- 
chief upon them and went on. It is passing strange 
that the peace was not disturbed, for some of War- 
ren's words were well adapted to excite the royal- 
ists. He spoke of the " ruin " around, and asked : 



360 PVA/!. 

" Does some fiend, fierce from the depth of hell, with 
all the rancorous malice that the apostate damned 
can feel, twang her destructive bow, and hurl her 
deadly arrows at our breast ? No, none of these ; 
but how astonishing ! it is the hand of Britain that 
inflicts the wound. The arms of George, our right- 
ful king, have been employed to shed that blood 
which freely should have flowed at his command, 
when justice or the honor of his crown had called his 
subjects to the field." 

The congress that had met in February at Cam- 
bridge convened again, March 22d, at Concord, when 
it resolved anew that for the people to relax their 
preparations for defence would be attended with the 
most dreadful consequences, pointed out the danger 
of " subjugation," and called upon all to be prepared 
to oppose force to force if any emergency should 
arise. The movements of the military had been 
strictly watched during the winter by a body of 
thirty persons who patrolled the streets by twos at 
night. At about dark, on the eighteenth of April, 
eight hundred British troops were taken from their 
barracks and marched to the foot of the common, 
where boats had been sent to meet them at a point 
not far from the present site of the Providence rail- 
road station. Information was taken to Dr. War- 
ren, and he immediately sent one William Dawes 
to Lexington, to inform Adams and Hancock, who 
were there. Dawes started across the Neck and 
went through Roxbury. At a later hour Warren 
sent for Paul Revere, and begged him to go to 
Lexington also, to tell Adams and Hancock of the 



LIGHTS IN THE NORTH CHURCH. 36 1 

movement. Revere had given certain friends at 
Charlestown to understand that, in case of such a 
movement of troops by way of the Neck, he would 
display a lantern in the steeple of Christ Church (or 
" the North Church," as it was familiarly called), and 
if by Charlestown, two. Making hurried arrange- 
ments, therefore, to have two lights hung out, he 
hastened across the Charles River and found his 
friends, who had seen the lights, waiting for him. 
A horse was provided, and he hastened on towards 
Lexington. Meantime most of the inhabitants of 
Boston slept quietly, little suspecting the momen- 
tous interests that were at stake. By daylight Gage 
was informed that the country had been alarmed in 
advance of his troops, and he determined to hurry 
forward reinforcements underyoung Earl Percy, then 
about thirty years of age. It was nine o'clock before 
these were ready to march, and then they went out 
through Roxbury to the Brighton bridge at Cam- 
bridge, and thence up the Menotomy road (through 
the present Arlington) towards Lexington. It was 
hot and dusty, and Percy's men were soon fatigued. 
Boston saw no more of them until eight o'clock that 
evening, when their bayonets gleamed on Bunker 
Hill, where they bivouacked for the night. In the 
interval the " battles " of Lexington and Concord had 
been fought ; the American minute-men had been 
tried, and had learned that under some circum- 
stances at least it was possible for them to make the 
redcoats run. 

The " siege of Boston " that was then begun lasted 
for eleven months. 



X62 



WAR. 



Jolm Adams relates that once on a business jour- 
ney, in 1774, he arrived at Fahnouth (now Portland) 
late in the afternoon after riding at least thirty-five 
miles. He said to his hostess: " Madame, is it law- 
ful for a weary traveller to refresh himself with a dish 
of tea, provided it has been honestly smuggled or 
paid no duties?" "No, sir," said she; "we have 
renounced all tea in this place ; but I '11 make you 
coffee." "Accordingly," he added, "I have drank 
coffee every afternoon since, and have borne it very 
well." 




^^ 




XXV. 

BOSTON BESIEGED. 

After the battles at Lexington and Concord, 
Governor Gage wrote to his friends in England: 
"Conciliation, moderation, reasoning is over; noth- 
ing can be done but by forcible means. Tho' the 
people are not held in high estimation by the troops, 
yet they are numerous, worked up to a fury, and not 
a Boston rabble, but the farmers and the freeholders 
of the country. A check anywhere will be fatal, and 
the first stroke will decide a great deal. We should 
therefore be strong, and proceed on a good founda- 
tion before anything decisive is tried." These were 
true words, and our story will show how true they 
were. Gage acted upon them. During the summer 
he fortified the town as carefully as he could, hav- 
ing, after May 25th, the counsel and assistance of 
General Howe, who, with Burgoyne and Clinton (the 
"three bow-wows," as they were called), arrived on 
that day. 

The meetings of the selectmen of Boston ceased 
on the nineteenth of April, 1775, the record being 
broken off in the midst of a list of the members of 
the body who were present, and, so far as the records 
go, martial law then took the place of the usual gov- 

363 



364 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

eminent of the town. Boston was closely shut up ; 
and Governor Gage was obliged to leave all the rest 
of the province over which he was appointed by 
George the Third, to be governed according to the 
pleasure of those of the colonists who were left out- 
side. From every direction men pressed toward the 
scene of action as soon as the alarm of the doings at 
Lexington and Concord reached them, and there was 
a fair army in Cambridge by the next evening after 
the battles. It was composed of such men as Gage 
describes, and it was so firm and so efificient that no 
force was able to get out of the capital except in one 
direction, — by water, — and in that direction all the 
British were forced out in the following spring. 
Many of those in the vicinity of Boston who sympa- 
thized with the British, hastened to find refuge 
within the town ; and large numbers already there 
made equal haste to get out, and there was mutual 
fear lest the Americans should march in, or the 
British march out. There was a town-meeting on 
the twenty-second, followed by a conference with 
Gage, which resulted in an agreement to allow citi- 
zens who would give up their arms to take their 
goods and leave the town. Many people actually 
did this ; but the general proved to be like Pharaoh 
of old, for when he feared that he had made a mistake, 
he hardened his heart, and refused to let any go 
whom he was able to hold back. He reasoned that 
if he could keep the Bostonians in, he would protect 
himself, for the patriots he thought would hesitate 
to destroy their friends. For similar reasons he 
ordered that those who did cro out should leave their 



ADAMS AND HANCOCK EXCEPTED. 365 

most valuable possessions behind them. Martial 
law was formally established on the twelfth of June 
by a proclamation, in which pardon was offered to 
all who would accept it, with the important excep- 
tions of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who 
were thus placed in the enviable position of leaders 
par excellence of the opposing citizens. 

Percy and his troops did not remain at their camp 
on Bunker Hill. The wounded were taken to Bos- 
ton by transports as promptly as possible, and soon 
afterward all the rest followed ; for Gage was really 
not strong enough to do more than protect himself 
until the reinforcements arrived under the " three 
bow-wows." The American army, then under com- 
mand of General Artemas Ward, had reached the 
total of fifteen thousand men. There had been no 
general engagement since the battles at Lexington 
and Concord ; but Charlestown had been astonished 
in May by the marching of an army of two thousand 
men to the ferry and back under General Putnam ; 
the " rebels " had amused themselves also by burning 
the houses on Hog Island, — " just under the admiral's 
nose," Lord Percy indignantly wrote to his father ; 
they had captured a barge belonging to a man-of- 
war at Noddle's Lsland, and after carrying it to Cam- 
bridge in triumph, had taken it to Roxbury in a cart, 
with the sails up and three men in it ; and there had 
been other raids, but no actual war. The doings 
with the barge showed the exuberant spirits of new 
recruits to whom blood-shedding was unknown. 

The region about was alarmed from time to time 
by reports that the British were intending to march 



366 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

out, and, by the third week in June, rumors of this 
kind became more definite. It was understood at 
Cambridge that an effort was to be made to fortify 
Dorchester Heights (now South Boston) and Charles- 
town, General Ward determined to be first at 
Bunker Hill, and despatched a force, under command 
of Colonel William Prescott, with orders to fortify 
that eminence. When Prescott reached the point, a 
consultation was held under the light of the moon, 
and it was determined to begin the works on Breed's 
Hill, which was nearer Boston, — less than a mile, in- 
deed, from the fortifications on Copp's Hill, just 
across the Charles River. It was nine in the even- 
ing, of June 1 6th, before the men left Cambridge ; 
but they worked very rapidly, and by dawn a 
redoubt had been thrown up about eight rods 
square. Work was begun on a breastwork, to ex- 
tend from the east side of the redoubt to the bottom 
of the hill, but hot and heavy firing by the British 
interrupted operations. After looking over the 
ground as well as he could, Gage decided, against 
the advice of his oflficers, to attack the works imme- 
diately in front ; and two thousand men were landed 
for the purpose under General Howe, near the pres- 
ent site of the Navy Yard. After hard fighting the 
Americans were overcome by greater numbers and 
forced to leave their position, having lost one hun- 
dred and forty-five killed and missing, and three 
hundred and four wounded. Two hundred and 
twenty-four of the attacking force were killed, and 
eight hundred and thirty wounded. It was a fierce 
struggle, which showed the colonists their fighting 



BUNKER HILL. 367 

ability, while it taught the British never to lead their 
troops against the Americans when entrenched ; and 
it proved the decisive battle of the war. The British 
burned the town, destroying, with the meeting-house, 
court-house, school-houses, and nearly four hundred 
other buildings, all the goods and chattels of the 
inhabitants, as well as much property belonging to 
citizens of Boston who had hurriedly carried it 
thither for safety. Among the losses were the books 
and manuscripts of the Reverend Samuel Mather, 
comprising those which he had received from his 
father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, 
many of them being, however, such as the present 
generation would probably consider of little value, 
except as showing the sort of books and writings 
which were in vogue in the colonial days. 

This was a desperate battle, and Mrs. John Adams 
writes that Howe was reported to have said that the 
fight upon the Plains of Abraham was but a bauble 
to it. It was thought astonishing that all the Ameri- 
cans were not cut off. The engagement began at 
three o'clock on Saturday morning, and the firing 
did not cease until after three o'clock Sunday after- 
noon. The towns about were excited. They all 
contained refugees from the city, and everybody 
feared that an immediate advance would be made 
over the Neck. There was so much alarm at Brain- 
tree, that no service was held in the meeting-house 
on that Sunday, nor even upon the next. While 
this was the state of affairs in the country, Boston 
itself was no less distressed. After the battle, wag- 
ons and carts were in active demand to convey the 



368 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

wounded to hospitals and the dead to their graves, 
and Howe was too much occupied and astonished by 
the audacity and bravery of the Americans to make 
plans for any immediate advance. 

We must conceive of the town at that time as 
deprived of all of its usual channels of supplies; of 
course provisions soon became scarce, and wood for 
fires was to be obtained only by taking down dwell- 
ings and other buildings. Mrs. Adams, in writing to 
her husband, said : 

" The present state of the inhabitants of Boston is that 
of the most abject slaves, under the most cruel and des- 
potic of tyrants. Among many instances I could men- 
tion, let me relate one. Upon the seventeenth of June, 
printed handbills were posted up at the corners of the 
streets and upon houses, forbidding any inhabitants to go 
upon their houses or upon any eminence on pain of 
death ; the inhabitants dared not to look out of their 
houses, nor to be heard or seen to ask a question. Our 
prisoners were brought over to the Long Wharf, and 
there lay all night, without any care of their wounds, or 
any resting-place but the pavements, until the next day, 
when they exchanged it for the jail, since which we hear 
they are civilly treated. Their living cannot be good, as 
they can have no fresh provisions ; their beef we hear is 
all gone, and their wounded men die very fast, so that 
they have a report that the bullets were poisoned. Fish 
they cannot have, they have rendered it so difficult to pro- 
cure ; and the admiral is such a villain, as to oblige 
every fishing schooner to pay a dollar every time it goes 
out. The money that has been paid for passes is incredi- 
ble. Some have given ten, twenty, thirty, and forty dol- 
lars to get out with a small proportion of their things. It 



THE HOWES DETESTED. 369 

is reported and believed that they have taken up a num- 
ber of persons and committed them to jail, we know not 
for what in particular. Master Lovell is confined in a 
dungeon ; a son of Mr. Edes is in jail ; and one Wibert, 
a ship-carpenter, is on trial for his life. God alone 
knows to what length these wretches will go. We shall 
soon have no coffee, nor sugar, nor pepper here ; but 
whortleberries and milk we are not obliged to commerce 
for." 

Words were not strong enough to give expression 
to the hate and detestation felt for the Howes, and 
John Adams followed his gentle wife in vigorous de- 
nunciation of England. " We have nothing to hope 
for from our loving mother-country," he wrote, " but 
cruelties more abominable than those which are 
practised by the savage Indians." A few days later, 
Mrs. Adams received news from a man who escaped 
from Boston in a fishing schooner, and wrote to her 
husband : 

" Their distress increases upon them fast. Their beef 
is all spent ; their malt and cider all gone. All the fresh 
provisions they can procure they are obliged to give to 
the sick and wounded. . . . No man dared to be 
seen talking with his friend in the street. They were 
obliged to be within every evening at ten o'clock, accord- 
ing to martial law ; nor could any inhabitant walk any 
street in town after that time without a pass from Gage. 
He has ordered all the molasses to be distilled into rum 
for the soldiers ; taken away all licenses, and given out 
others ; obliging to a forfeiture of ten pounds if any rum 
is sold without written orders from the general. 
As to the situation of the camps, our men are in general 



37° BOSTON BESIEGED. 

healthy, much more so at Roxbury than at Cambridge. 
. . . Every article in the West India way is very 
scarce and dear. In six weeks we shall not be able 
to purchase any article of the kind. I wish you would 
let Bass get me one pound of pepper and two yards of 
black calamanco for shoes. I cannot wear leather, if I 
go barefoot. . . . Not one pin to be purchased for 
love or money." 

A writer inside of the town wrote that the fare 
was " pork and beans one day and beans and pork 
another, and fish when we can catch it." 

The officers of the British occupied the best dwell- 
ings they could find. Lord Percy lived apart of the 
time in the Gardiner Greene mansion,* and a part in 
a dwelling on the corner of Tremont and Winter 
streets, which was afterwards the home of Samuel 
Breck ; Burgoyne was in the house of the learned 
James Bowdoin, who was governor of the State 
after the war f ; General Clinton occupied the house 
of John Hancock, on Beacon Street, fronting the 
Common. The South meeting-house was used as a 
riding-school for the light dragoons ; some other 
meeting-houses were occupied as barracks ; the 
North meeting-house was pulled down for firewood, 
as were many other buildings of less pretence, in- 
cluding, probably, the house of John Winthrop, that 
stood near the Old South meeting-house. Cutting 

* Tlie estate of Gardiner Greene comprised the greater portion of 
Pemberton Hill, now kept in memory by Pemberton Square, and his 
dwelling was the finest in Boston. 

f This house stood on Beacon Street, near the corner of the street 
that bears the governor's name. It stood back from the street, and, 
like the massive building now on the site, was approaclicd by a long 
flight of stone steps. 



KING GEORGE ACTIVE. t^JI 

down the Liberty Tree afforded the troops amuse- 
ment one day. 

The colonial congress met at Philadelphia May 
lOth, and George Washington, of Virginia, was ap- 
pointed to take the lead of the armies of the united 
colonies. At the same period the citizens of Massa- 
chusetts, not being able to get at their rightful 
capital, formed a new government, organizing the 
" Territorj^ of Massachusetts Bay," with its capital 
at Watertown, where the representatives and coun- 
cillors, without any governor, held their sessions in 
the village meeting-house. Washington was appoint- 
ed two days before the battle of Bunker Hill, and 
left for Cambridge as soon as he could, stopping at 
Watertown to pay his respects to the new govern- 
ment. On the third of July he took command of 
the forces, and began to establish discipline among 
the men, who were entirely unaccustomed to it. He 
made the blockade of Boston as complete as possible, 
and laid plans for the capture of the town. 

On the other side of the sea, his Majesty George 
the Third, was fully occupied with considerations 
touching America. He recalled Gage so soon as the 
report of the " victory " at Bunker Hill was received, 
made arrangements with the ruler of Hesse to buy 
men to send over to fight his once loyal subjects in 
Boston. On the twenty-third of August, he made a 
proclamation for suppressing rebellion and sedition, 
in which he charged the colonists with forgetfulness 
of their allegiance, with obstructing commerce, with 
actual rebellion, and commanded all civil and mili- 
tary of^cers and all loyal subjects to use their utmost 
efforts to suppress the outbreak, promising " condign 



372 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

punishment " to the rebels themselves, — when 
caught. His Majesty declared that he was " unal- 
terably determined at every hazard, and at the risk of 
every consequence, to compel the colonies to absolute 
submission," and the determination gave him the ap- 
pearance of ease and composure, even of gayety, while 
it was said of his minister, Lord North, that neither he 
nor any one else had ever been seen in higher spirits. 
The summer of 1775 was very hot, and it was fol- 
lowed by a winter of more than ordinary mildness. 
There was inactivity on both sides, and this was, of 
course, less endurable in the city than outside of it. 
The British found some enjoyment in a theatre that 
they improvised at Faneuil Hall, where amateurs 
took parts in plays selected or written for the occa- 
sions. One of these is credited to General Burgoyne. 
It was called " The Blockade of Boston," and on the 
eighth of January, 1776, when it was performing, 
and an actor was ridiculing Washington, the alarm 
was given that the Yankees were attacking Bunker 
Hill. The audience thought that this was a part of 
the play, until there came a sharp command : " Of- 
ficers, to your posts ! " and the performance was 
brought to a sudden and inglorious end. In the 
same month, arrangements were made for a masked 
ball, to be held on the eleventh of the following 
March. It was thus advertised : 

Masquerade. 

On Monday, the eleventh of March, will be given at 

Concert Hall, a Subscription Masked Ball. — By the fifth of 

March a number of different masks will be prepared 

and sold by almost all the milliners and mantua- 

makers in town. 



RUFUS PUTNAM MAKES A CALL. 373 

The Nezvs-Lctter referred to the ball in an editorial 
article, on the twenty-second of February, saying : 
" We hear ten capital cooks are already employed in 
preparing supper for the masquerade, which is to be 
the most brilliant thing ever seen in America." 

Among the trusted military men about Washing- 
ton was one whom he was wont to call the ablest 
engineer ofihcer of the war, whether American or 
French. It was General Rufus Putnam, a veteran 
of the Old French War, who, with a regiment from 
Worcester County, had joined the camp at Cam- 
bridge, just after the battle at Lexington. Washing- 
ton wished for ice on which he could transfer troops 
from Cambridge to Roxbury, in order that he might 
make an attack upon Boston from that side. The 
season was open, and ice did not form until near 
spring, and then the cold froze the ground so that it 
was like solid rock to the pickaxe. One evening 
during the winter Washington invited Putnam to dine 
at head-quarters, and detained him after the company 
had departed in order to discuss the subject on his 
mind. Putnam was ordered to consider the matter, 
and report at once if he should find any means of 
executing the plan. Putnam left in company with 
another gentleman, and, on the way, passed General 
Heath's. " I had no thoughts of calling," he re- 
lates, " until I came against his door, and then I 
said : * Let us call on General Heath,' to which he 
agreed. I had no other motive but to pay my 
respects to the general. While there I cast my eye 
on a book which lay on the table, lettered on the 
back ' Muller's Field Ens^ineer.' I immediatclv re- 



374 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

quested the general to lend it to me. He denied 
me. I repeated my request. He again refused, and 
told me he never lent his books. I then told him that 
he must recollect that he was one who, at Roxbury, 
in a measure compelled me to undertake a business 
which, at the time, I confessed I had never read a 
word about, and that he must let me have the book. 
After some more excuses on his part, and close 
pressing on mine, I obtained the loan of it." When 
Putnam glanced over the table of contents his eye 
was attracted by the word " chandelier," which was 
new to him. The word was described as applying 
to a movable parapet of wood instead of earth, made 
of stout timbers ten feet long, into which were 
framed posts five feet high and five feet apart. 
These were placed on the ground in parallel lines, 
and the spaces were filled in with bundles of fascines 
strongly picketed together. The problem was solved. 
Washington decided to take advantage of the 
return of the day of the "Massacre" to open his 
fires. Putnam set men at work in apple orchards and 
woodlands cutting and bundling up the fascines and 
getting them ready for the appointed time. As has 
been well said : " When the sun went down on Boston 
on the fourth of March Washington was at Cam- 
bridge, and Dorchester Heights were as nature or 
the husbandmen had left them in the autumn." 
During that night troops were transported thither, 
the chandeliers were put in position, the ground was 
thrown up in the form of earthworks by willing 
hands, and in the morning the British, looking through 
a focr that had before covered the Americans and 



GOING TO HALIFAX. 375 

now magnified the size of their works, found them- 
selves overlooked by fortifications that seemed of 
indefinite magnitude. It took General Howe but 
twenty-four hours to decide that his position must 
be evacuated, and after a delay of some days, he 
acted upon that decision. 

By four o'clock on Sunday morning, March 17th, 
the British began to embark on their ships, and 
by ten o'clock, so rapid was the movement, the 
vessels were all under sail, carrying with them such 
loyalists as had remained in the town to share the 
discomfiture. As the last passengers went on 
board. General Washington entered the abandoned 
town, crossing the Neck by the street which now 
bears his name in memory of the fact. He was 
received with acclamations as he passed along, for 
the citizens were happy to be released from their 
trials. 

On the day that the mantua-makers were to have 
sold masks for the most brilliant ball ever seen in 
America, " an ofificer of distinction " wrote that the 
Americans had, during the previous night raised 
redoubts at Dorchester, " with an expedition equal 
to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin's wonder- 
ful lamp " ; and the next day he continued : " We 
are now evacuating the town with the utmost expe- 
dition, and are leaving behind us half our worldly 
goods." Before the day arrived that had been set 
for the ball, Boston was in utter confusion, in vigor- 
ous efforts to complete what the same distinguished 
officer called " the retreat from the town." If the 
" ten cooks " prepared the supper of which the edi- 



3/6 BOSTON BESIEGED. 

tor of the News-Letter heard, the}- lost their labor. 
At noon of the day of Washington's entry, Mrs. 
Adams wrote : 

" To what a contemptible situation are the troops of 
Britain reduced ! . . . I hear that General Howe said, 
upon going on some eminence to view our troops, who 
had taken Dorchester Hill unperceived by them until 
sunrise : ' My God ! these fellows have done more work 
in one night than I could make my army do in three months.' 
And he might well say so, for in one night two forts and 
long breastworks were sprung up, besides several bar- 
racks. Three hundred and seventy teams were employed, 
most of which went three loads in the night, besides four 
thousand men, who worked with good hearts. From 
Penn's Hill we ha\-e a view of the largest fleet ever seen 
in America. You may count upwards of one hundred 
and seventy sail. They look like a forest." 

The close of the siege of Boston is also the close 
of a period in the existence of the town. Previously 
to that event it had been the most important place 
in the colonies, and the one against which the Brit- 
ish ministry aimed their most virulent shafts. The 
siege reduced the population to about six thousand 
inhabitants, though there had been more than three 
times as many before, and during the period of 
recuperation that followed, it contained but little 
more than twelve thousand inhabitants, while New 
York had more than twice as many. The heroic age 
of Boston ended when Washington took possession 
of it for America. There was thereafter no more 
war within its limits ; there was no longer a struggle 
for a charter ; there was no odious tax to be dis- 



PEACE IN BOSTON. 



177 



cussed, denounced, and rebelled against ; thenceforth 
there was only the practice of the arts of peace, 
of commercial enterprise, varied by exhibitions of 
patriotism when any other portion of the land was 
aggrieved, when the life of the nation itself was 
threatened. Boston was destined to grow in the 
lines that the fathers laid out for it, to become rich 
and to be useful ; but never again was it to have an 
heroic age. 





XXVI. 

INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

After the departure of the Rritish, the scene of 
action for the men of Massachusetts changed, and 
the more enlarged sphere opened to such men as 
Samuel and John Adams, Hancock, Gushing, and 
the others who had made the town-meeting and the 
provincial legislature their means of influencing pub- 
lic opinion. It has been said that " no other town 
ever played so conspicuous a part in connexion with 
important events " as Boston did in the early period. 
Samuel Adams, said Hutchinson with truth, depended 
upon the town-meeting, where he originated the 
measures that were followed by the other towns in 
the province, and adopted and justified by the legis- 
lature, and, he might have added, were considered 
at Philadelphia, and, by his influence there, made a 
part of the impulse that stirred the continent. Mas- 
sachusetts thus, through its representatives, moved 
the general congress ; Boston gave the cue to Massa- 
chusetts, and Samuel Adams ruled Boston. Jefferson 
considered Samuel Adams, " more than any other 
member of congress, the fountain of the most import- 
ant measures," and declared that " if there was any 
Palinurus to the Revolution," he was the man. Adams 

378 



THE AMERICAN PALINURUS. 379 

was constantly holding caucuses in Philadelphia, as 
he had held them in Boston, that were attended by 
distinguished men, where "the generality of the 
measures pursued were previously determined on, 
and at which the parts were assigned to the differ- 
ent actors who afterwards appeared in them. John 
Adams had a very little part in these caucuses; but 
as one of the actors in the measures decided on in 
them, he was the Colossus." * 

At an early period Samuel Adams was called " the 
Father of America," and certainly no one better de- 
served the title ; after his death he was spoken of as 
the " Father of the American Revolution," and no 
one could dispute that honor with him. It is not 
our province to follow the events that Massachusetts 
men were engaged in after they called them away 
from Boston, but some reference to contemporary 
history is unavoidable. 

The British fleet remained in the harbor some 
time after the evacuation of Boston, and deserters 
reported that there was much sickness among the 
men. Efforts were initiated for setting lire to the 
vessels, but before they were ready the ships sailed 
away, perhaps informed of the proposed attempt. 
Washington went away in April, 1776, leaving Arte- 
mas Ward in command, and he was followed in 
succession by Heath and Gates. Efforts were made 
to fortify Fort Hill ; the islands were inspected, and 
slowly the place was made strong ; but there were 
occasional alarms lest the fleet should return and do 
damage. When the inhabitants recovered from 

* Thomas Jefferson, under date 1825. 



380 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

their amazement and looked around, they found 
their homes in many cases devastated, though a few 
of the occupants at the time of the siege had left 
sums of money for them in the nature of rent. 
Goods were held at extravagant prices in the two or 
three shops open, and it was difificult to obtain men 
to do necessary work. The fortifications erected by 
Gage on the Neck were soon levelled, and the two 
thousand effective men that Washington left, when 
he went to the southward, were put in the best order 
possible for the protection of the town. 

The Americans watched the movements of the 
ships that came toward Boston, as well as of those that 
went from it, and in May a large armed ship, named 
the Hope, appeared, bringing supplies to the town, 
which was thought to be still occupied by a British 
garrison. Ward had commissioned a brave captain, 
named Mugford, to watch for such vessels, and he 
attacked this one, which proved to have on board 
among its cargo a supply of powder, which was then 
much needed. Mugford carried her safely to Bos- 
ton. There were other similar captures, which 
relieved the Bostonians and were thankfully ac- 
knowledged. Mrs. Adams wrote : 

" The remarkable interpositions of Heaven in our be- 
half cannot be too gratefully acknowledged. He who 
fed the Israelites in the wilderness, ^ who clothes the 
lilies of the field, and feeds the young ravens when they 
cry,' will not forsake a people engaged in so righteous a 
cause, if we remember his loving-kindness. \\c wanted 
powder — we have a supply. We wanted arms — we have 
been favored in that respect. We wanted hard money — 



LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FORMED. 38 1 

twenty-two thousand dollars and an equal value in plate 
are delivered into our hands." 

Congress was in session at Philadelphia, and on 
the nineteenth of May, 1776, a vote was passed, 
recommending each of the colonies to form a local 
o-overnment. The resolution asserted that it was 
irreconcilable with the conscience and reason of the 
people to take oaths to support the royal govern- 
ments, that all such ought to be suppressed, and 
governments established that depended upon the 
power of the sovereign people. The tories opposed 
this, of course, and so did the representatives of the 
proprietary governments of the middle colonies, and 
there was an outburst of bitter passion ; but all op- 
position was powerless, and the resolution became 
the platform of the popular party, the touchstone of 
fidelity. Massachusetts, we know, had already taken 
this action ; New Hampshire had followed in Janu- 
ary, 1776 ; and South Carolina did the same March 
26th that year. A few days before this, the most 
influential member of the Massachusetts legislature, 
then in session at Watertown, wrote : 

** The tories dread a declaration of independence, and 
a course of conduct on that plan, worse than death. . . . 
My hand and heart are full of it. There will be no 
abiding union without it. . . . Without a real conti- 
nental government, our army will overrun us ; and peo- 
ple will, by and by, — sooner than you may be aware of, 
— call for their old constitutions, as they did in England, 
after Cromwell's death, call in Charles the Second. For 
God's sake, let there be a full revolution, or all has been 
done in vain. Independency and a well-planned conti- 



382 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

nental government will save us. God bless you ! Amen 
and amen ! " 

One branch of the Massachusetts legislature passed 
a vote in favor of a declaration of independence, but 
the other refused to agree until Congress had legis- 
lated on the subject, because it was considered that 
such action might appear dictatorial, and thus injure 
the cause. Both branches agreed, however, on an 
act requiring all citizens to " defend by arms the 
United Colonies, and every part thereof," against 
the fleets and armies of Britain, and the towns were 
called upon to meet and determine whether, in case 
Congress should declare for independence, they 
would solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes 
to support the measure. Accordingly, the towns 
met in May and June, and voted, that if the Ameri- 
can Republic were not established, the age would be 
recreant to its duty ; that there was no alternative 
but ruin or independence ; that they would defend 
such a measure to the death, as the various phrase- 
ology ran. 

" In this way, from the battlefields of Lexington and 
Concord, from the ruins at the base of Bunker Hill, 
from Faneuil Hall, from a hundred villages aglow with 
patriotic fires, went forth the pledge of determined and 
stern men to support such a declaration as Congress 
might make with their fortunes and their lives." * 

Twelve of the thirteen colonies (all, except New 
York) had, by the end of June, given their voices in 
favor of a declaration of independence, and had des- 
ignated Congress as the body to take the final action. 

* Frothingham, " The Rise of the Republic," pages 507, 508. 



JOHN ADAMS AGREEABLY SURPRISED. 383 

Under these circumstances Congress met at Phila- 
delphia on the first of July, having among its number 
two members, — Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
— who were outlaws, proscribed by the king, and it 
set itself to the consideration of independency, the 
only topic that seemed of present importance. John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, was called upon to present 
the arguments in favor of the step that seemed to 
be demanded. He rose reluctantly and somewhat 
confused, he said, and expressed his views. The 
debate that followed was not long, and on the follow- 
ing day it was solemnly resolved that " These United 
Colonies are and of right ought to be free and inde- 
pendent states ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown ; and that all political 
connexion between them and the state of Great 
Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved." Then 
John Adams wrote to his wife : 

" The greatest question has been decided which ever 
was debated in America, and a greater perhaps than ever 
was or will be decided among men. . . . When I 
look back to the year 1761, and recollect the argument 
concerning the writs of assistance in the Superior Court, 
which I have hitherto considered as the commencement 
of this controversy between Great Britain and America, 
and run through the whole period from that time to this, 
and recollect the series of political events, the chain of 
causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as 
well as the greatness of this revolution. Britain has 
been filled with folly and America with wisdom, at least 
this is my judgment. Time must determine. It is the 
will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered 
forever." 



384 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

John Adams said that the second day of July 
ought to be celebrated as a great anniversary festival 
by succeeding generations, — " commemorated as a 
day of deliverance, — by solemn acts of devotion to 
God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with 
pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, 
bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of 
this continent to the other, from this time forward 
forevermore." 

How was the news that Adams sent to his wife 
with such an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm, re- 
ceived in Boston ? The day of the Thursday lecture 
was set apart for the reading of the Declaration, and 
after a good sermon the congregation followed the 
crowd to King Street. The town was thronged by 
crowds in holiday suits, with joy beaming from every 
eye. Artillery was drawn up in front of the jail on 
Court Street, and infantry lined the adjoiningstreets. 
Exactly as the clock struck one. Colonel Thomas 
Crafts appeared on the balcony of the State House, 
and read the Declaration, the great audience listen- 
ing with attention to every word. When he sat 
down a shout, " God save our American States ! " 
was heard in the hall, to which the throng below re- 
sponded with three hearty cheers ; the bells rang, 
cannon were discharged from the shipping and from 
the forts and batteries, the infantry followed, and 
Mr. Bowdoin gave the sentiment, " Stability and 
Perpetuity to American Independence ! " The better 
class of citizens attended a banquet in the council- 
chamber; much liquor was distributed to the popu- 
lace, according to the old custom : and the king's 



THE DEFICIENCIES OF BOSTONIANS. 385 

arms were taken down from the town-house, cus- 
tom-house, court-house, and every other place, and 
consumed in a general bonfire in front of the Bunch 
of Grapes tavern at the corner of Kilby and State 
streets. In the evening there was a general illumina- 
tion, and as Mrs. Adams wrote: "Thus ends royal 
authority in this state; and all the people shall say 
amen ! " On the fifteenth of August, by order of 
the council. Dr. Chauncy read the Declaration from 
the pulpit of the Brick Church, which stood on the 
spot now occupied by the Joy Building, on Wash- 
ington Street, and asked a " blessing upon the 
United States of America, even until the restitution 
of all things," in a manner that universally struck 
his audience. Mrs. Adams thought, however, that 
Boston was behind the other colonies in joy over 
the establishment of the new government. 

Both John Adams and his wife had high notions 
of what ought to be expected of Boston, and in 
many respects they doubtless were right. Mr. 
Adams wrote from Philadelphia that there was no 
one thing in which Massachusetts excelled the other 
colonies so much as in its university, scholars, and 
preachers. " Particular gentlemen, here," he added, 
" who have improved upon their education by travel, 
shine ; but in general old Massachusetts outshines 
her younger sisters. Still, in several particulars they 
have more wit than we. They have societies, the 
Philosophical Society, particularly, which excites a 
scientific emulation, and propagates their fame. . . . 
My countrymen want art and address. They want 
knowledge of the world. They want the exterior 



386 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

and superficial accomplishments of gentlemen, upon 
which the world has set so high a value. In solid 
abilities and real virtues they vastly excel, in gen- 
eral, any people upon this continent. Our New 
England people are awkward, and bashful, yet they 
are pert, ostentatious, and vain ; a mixture which 
excites ridicule and gives disgust. They have not 
the faculty of showing themselves to the best ad- 
vantage, nor the art of concealing this faculty ; an 
art and faculty which some people possess in the 
highest degree. Our deficiencies in these respects 
are owing wholly to the little intercourse we have 
had with strangers, and to our inexperience in the 
world. These imperfections must be remedied, for 
New England must produce the heroes, the states- 
men, the philosophers, or America will make no 
great figure for some time." " 

At this time the cost of living was double what it 
had been the year previous ; the merchant com- 
plained of the farmer, and the farmer of the mer- 
chant, but both were alike extravagant, in the 
opinion of the buyer. Mrs. Adams wrote to her 
husband that she wished a little green tea, for there 
was none to be had in Boston ; but she explained 
that she merely wished it as a " medicine and as a 
relief to a nervous pain " in her head, and added, 
perhaps to show the unreasonableness of human 
nature : " Were it as plenty as ever, I would not 
practise the use of it." With the progress of the 
war there came a gradual change in Boston society, 
and extravagance of manners and of equipage fol- 

* " Familiar Letters of John Adams ami his Wife," page 207. 



RUM AND MUTTON SCARCE. 387 

lowed. Mr. Curwen in his diary relates (February 
10, 1780) that those who in 1772 were the "meaner 
people," became a few years later, by a strange rev- 
olution, almost the only men of power, riches, and 
influence, while those who at that time had been 
leaders in the highest line of life, were happy if by 
remaining unknown they could escape " insult and 
plunder." This is the opinion of a loyalist, who had 
left his country to escape the indignation of the 
patriotic people ; but Mrs. Adams wrote to her hus- 
band that a lethargy seemed to have overcome the 
people, that there was a great rage for privateering 
as a means of gaining riches ; that the town of Bos- 
ton seemed to be really destitute of the choice 
spirits that once inhabited it ; that though she had 
not heard that toryism was on the increase, there 
was a spirit of avarice, a contempt of authority, an 
inordinate love of gain, and that prices of ordinary 
necessaries of life w^ere exorbitant, in spite of an ordi- 
nance vainly passed for the purpose of restraining 
speculation. New England rum was, in the spring of 
1777, as high as eight shillings a gallon, and molasses 
the same ; coffee, two and sixpence a pound ; and 
mutton, lamb, and pork not to be had at any price. 
There were those who refused to take paper-money, 
offered articles for sale at a lower price for silver, 
and bought up goods for the purpose of speculation, 
which they would not sell at any price for paper. 
Five of these were, one Saturday afternoon, in April, 
1777, carted through the streets of Boston to Rox- 
bury, followed by a concourse of some five hundred 
persons, under command of one " Joice junior," who 



388 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

was on horseback, dressed in a white wig, a red coat, 
and bearincr a drawn sword. The drum and fife 
made music. When Roxbury was reached Joice 
onlered the cart tipped up, and the men were 
informed that if they were found in Boston again it 
would be at the expense of their Hves. " Joice 
junior" was a name given to a man appointed to 
this duty of terrifying royalists, and it seems that he 
attended well to his work. 

A little later, a number of " females," angry be- 
cause some merchants held their sugar for a rise in 
price, went to the store of one of them, Thomas 
Boylston, a bachelor, called by Mrs. Adams " emi- 
nent, wealthy, stingy," and demanded his keys, which 
he refused to give up. They were provided with 
carts and trucks, and Mr. Boylston was quickly seized 
by the neck and tossed into one of them ; whereupon 
he delivered up his keys and was tipped out again. 
The warehouse was opened, and a hogshead of cofTee 
was hoisted out and carried away. It is related that 
" a large concourse of men stood amazed, silent 
spectators of the whole transaction." 

Less than a week after this all Boston was in con- 
fusion, for there was a rumor that the enemy was 
about to attack it. People were seen hastily pack- 
ing up and carting from the town all the household 
goods, merchandise and military stores that could 
be gathered together at once, and a thousand teams 
were employed in taking them into the country. 
The alarm was, however, found to have been base- 
less. The progress of the war led the people to 
seek to cultivate their own resources, and among 



BURGOYNE IN CAMBRIDGE. 389 

other expedients it was thought that molasses and 
even sugar might be obtained from the corn-stalk. 
Scarcely a town about Boston was without mills for 
the purpose of crushing the stalks and making mo- 
lasses, which it was thought might be boiled down 
into sugar. 

The news of the surrender of Burgoyne's army at 
Saratoga, in October, 1777, was received in Boston 
with the usual demonstrations of joy. A service of 
thanksgiving and praise was held on the twenty- 
sixth of the month, and the " vaporing Burgoyne " 
was expected in Cambridge soon after. The general 
himself entered town in a pelting storm, and was 
quartered at Porter's Hotel, then Bradish's Tav- 
ern, which was afterwards exchanged for the large 
dwelling opposite the college library, often called 
the " Bishop's Palace." The captured artillery was 
parked on the Common. General Riedesel and his 
wife were assigned to the " Jonathan Sewall house," 
which then stood on the corner of Brattle and Sparks 
streets, but now, in a considerably altered condition, 
has found a resting-place on the corner next beyond, 
the street being named in honor of the baron. The 
Hessian and English soldiers were strictly guarded 
by Massachusetts militia. They were sent in de- 
tachments to the interior of the State, the last 
leaving in October, 1778. 

Though Mrs. Adams had not heard of the appear- 
ance of toryism, it seems that the spirit made itself 
felt in the spring elections in Boston in 1778, when 
some of those who had gone to Halifax with Howe 
returned and asked to be permitted to resume their 



390 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

former rights and residence. Samuel Adams espe- 
cially was positive against such action. He had 
wished to see Boston a " Christian Sparta," and he 
felt that the influence of the tories was always on the 
side of display and ostentation, of extravagance and 
luxury, which he thought demoralizing to the com- 
munity and fatal to liberty. He felt sure that the 
tories were all watching for an opportunity to return 
and damage the prospects of the country, and he 
thought it unwise as well as impolitic to give them 
any assistance in their evil work. 

Samuel Adams had been made Secretary of State in 
1775, and though he was much of the time absent at 
Philadelphia he was continued in office, performing its 
duties personally when in Boston and through a dep- 
uty at other times. In the summer of 1779 he returned 
to his home, but it was to find Boston society quite 
different from what it had been when he first began 
the fight for independence. Otis was gone, Warren 
was gone, Josiah Ouinc}' junior had died abroad, and 
Hancock, whom he had brought to the front, had be- 
come his bitter opponent. The characters of Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock were directly opposite to 
one another. Adams now came back by slow stages 
on horseback to an humble home destitute of every 
luxury, which he occupied by the liberalit}' of the 
legislature, for he had never been able to repair his 
Purchase Street dwelling after the depredations of 
the l^ritish during the siege. Hancock travelled 
from Philadelphia accompanied by a guard of cav- 
airy, and housed himself in a mansion adorned with 
all that mone\' could buy, in which he lavishly enter- 



BALLS AND DLVERSIONS. 39I 

tained the rich and the great. Hancock, who had 
opposed the scheme for the committees of corre- 
spondence, which had been so warmly adopted by 
Samuel Adams and proved so useful, came again into 
antagonism with him when he seconded the motion 
of John Adams that Washington should be com- 
mander-in-chief of the colonial forces. The feelings 
of Hancock against Adams must for some years have 
been of the worst, but they were changed in 1788, 
when the twain were candidates together for offlce 
in their native state, and their names were printed 
in letters of gold on the electoral tickets in token of 
the gratification that the fact gave to their sup- 
porters. 

In the autumn of 1780 the first election occurred un- 
der a new state constitution that had been adopted the 
previous spring,* and Hancock was elected governor. 
The occasion of the beginning of the new govern- 
ment was made the excuse for a round of balls and 
entertainments that Samuel Adams thought in- 
consistent with the sober republican principles in 
which it was founded. " Why," he wrote to a friend, 
" should this new era be introduced with entertain- 
ments expensive and tending to dissipate the minds 
of the people? Does it become us to lead the peo- 
ple to such public diversions as promote superfluity 
of dress and ornament, when it is as much as they 
can bear to support the expense of clothing the 
naked army ? Will vanity and levity ever be the 
stability of government, either in state or in cities, 

* This constitution, which was largely moulded by Adams, was read 
by him to the people assembled in Faneuil Hall, May 3, 1780. 



392 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

or, what, let me hint to}'ou, is of the last importance, 
in families ? " Adams struck not only at the abuse, 
but at his former friend when he thus wrote, for it 
was the influence of Hancock that led to these glit- 
tering assemblages which the patriots thought in- 
consistent with former professions, as well as with 
the true spirit of republicanism. There were meetings 
in Faneuil Hall to protest against extravagance; but 
though Samuel Ada«ns presided, the meetings were 
not like those of a few years before. 

"The voice that once made George the Third 
through fear turn cold," was listened to, but the 
men upon whom it spent itself were not those of other 
days and the effect was small. Adams wrote: 

" It was asked in the reign of Charles the Second of 
England, How shall we turn the minds of the people 
from an attention to their liberties ? The answer was. 
By making them extravagant, luxurious, and effeminate, 
Hutchinson advised the abridgement of what are called 
English liberties by the same means. We shall never 
subdue them, said Bernard, but by eradicating their man- 
ners and the yjrinciples of their education. . . . Pow- 
nall, who was, indeed, a mere fribble, ventured to have 
his riots and his routs at his own house to please a few 
boys and girls. Sober people were disgusted at it, and his 
privy-councillors never thought it prudent to venture so 
far as expensive balls. Our Bradfords, Winslows and 
Winthrops would have revolted at the idea of opening 
scenes of dissipation and folly, knowing them to be 
inconsistent with their great design in transplanting 
themselves into what they called this ' outside of the 
world.' " 



PREACHING ECONOMY. 393 

These were by no means mere words with Adams. 
While he had been away from Boston his wife had 
supported his family by the labor of her own hands, 
and when he was at home he did not suffer a com- 
plaint to escape him on account of the hardness of 
his lot. He gave up his all for his country, and 
uttered no murmur. He proved the honesty of his 
words by his works. 

John Adams also preached and practised economy 
and modesty in personal and puh)lic expenses. In 
1778 he wrote to his wife from Passy, where he was 
in the capacity of commissioner at the French court : 

" My dear countrymen ! how shall I pursuade you to 
avoid the plague of Europe ! Luxury has as many and as 
bewitching charms on your side of the ocean as on this ; 
and luxury, wherever she goes, effaces from human nature 
the image of the divinity. If I had power I should for- 
ever banish and exclude from America all gold, silver, 
precious stones, alabaster, marble, silk, velvet, and lace. 
' Oh, the tyrant ! ' the American ladies would say. 
What ! Aye, my dear girls, these passions of yours 
which are so easily alarmed, and others of my own sex 
which are exactly like them, have done and will do the 
work of tyrants in all ages. Tyrants different from me, 
whose power has banished, not gold, indeed, but other 
things of greater value : wisdom, virtue, and liberty." 

John Adams exemplified his personal modesty in 
the response that he made when some one in France 
asked him if he were the " famous Adams." He 
replied that he was only the cousin of that distin- 
guished person. Certainly, however, he was a 
famous Adams. 



394 INDEPENDENCE DECLARED AND WON. 

While John Adams was in France trying to 
strengthen the ties that bound the two nations, he 
was cautious enough to see that the connexion 
might be a dangerous one, and feared lest French 
counsels should have too great weight in American 
affairs. The alliance that he saw was of greatest 
moment to the united colonies was threatened with 
rupture after the attack on Newport, in 1778, then, 
and for two years previously, in the hands of the 
British. General Sullivan attributed the failure of 
that expedition to the action of the French fleet 
under d'Estaing, and there were many ready to 
reanimate the ancient animosity of the times of the 
French and Indian wars ; the tories, too, were on 
hand to fan the flame which they saw would tend to 
weaken the French alliance. There was a serious 
riot in Boston caused by these ill feelings between 
the French and American seamen. Samuel Adams 
and Washington endeavored to promote harmony, 
and Hancock gave the officers lavish entertainment 
in his great mansion, where thirty or more were 
dined daily, with a profuse exhibition of the plate 
and livery that both the Adamses abhorred. Han- 
cock gave them also a great ball at Concert Hall, on 
the corner of Court (then Queen Street) and Han- 
over streets (October 29th). This hall was many 
years after still the most elegant place of the kind 
in town, and had then long been the principal head- 
quarters of the friends of liberty. Mrs. Adams 
reported to her husband, then in France, that she 
saw much of the ofificers of the French fleet, that 
d'Estaing had been very polite to her, and that she 



FRENCH TEMPERANCE AND POLITENESS. 395 

had dined on the vessels, being on one occasion 
" sumptuously entertained with every delicacy that 
this country produces, and the addition of every 
foreign article that could render our feast splendid. 
Music and dancing for the young folks closed the 
day. The temperance of these gentlemen," she 
continued, " the peaceable, quiet disposition, both 
of officers and men, joined to many other virtues 
which they have exhibited during their continuance 
with us, are suf^cient to make Europeans, and 
Americans, too, blush at their own degeneracy of 
manners. Not one officer has been seen the least 
disguised with liquor since their arrival. Most that 
I have seen appear to have been gentlemen of 
family and education. I have been the more desir- 
ous to take notice of them, as I cannot help saying 
that they have been neglected in the town of Boston. 
Generals Heath and Hancock have done their part, 
but very few, if any, private families have any 
acquaintance with them." Mrs. Adams anticipated 
the wishes of her husband, who was anxious lest the 
affair at Newport should produce heartburnings, as 
he wrote to her when the news reached him in 
November. 

The victory of October, 1 781, at Yorktown caused 
great joy in Boston, intensified by the depression of 
the previous months, and when, in the autumn of 
of 1782, the French army was in Boston, which had 
marched from the Hudson to set sail for the West 
Indies, her citizens, in town-meeting, under the 
familiar lead of Samuel Adams, finally expressed the 
sense of gratitude and obligation that was felt by 
ail true Americans for their assistance in the war. 



XXVII. 



THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 



When peace came to the country, Boston town 
entered upon a new stage of existence. A new aris- 
tocracy took the lead in its affairs ; the men of 
wealth and station who had formed the court of the 
royal governors — who had succeeded to the places 
once filled by Winthrop and those who followed 
him— were gone, and their estates were confiscated. 
In their stead there stood forward men who had 
made solid, but sudden, fortunes during the war. It 
was of some of these that Samuel Curwen, the royal- 
ist refugee, wrote to William Brown, also a refugee 
from Salem, afterwards governor of Bermuda: 

" It is a melancholy truth that whilst some are wallow- 
ing in undeserved wealth that plunder and rapine have 
thrown into their hands, the wisest, most peaceable and 
most deserving, such as you and I know, are now suffer- 
ing want, accompanied by indignities that a licentious, 
lawless people can pour forth upon them. Those who 
five years ago [that is, before the war] were the ' meaner 
people," are now, by a strange revolution, become almost 
the only men of power, riches, and influence ; those who, 
on the contrary, were leaders and in the highest line of 
life, are glad by this time to be unknown and unnoticed, 

396 



NEW PEOPLE COME FORWARD. 397 

to escape insult and plunder — the wretched condition of 
all who are not violent, and adopters of Republican prin- 
ciples." * 

There had, indeed, been a " revolution " in politics, 
commerce, and social life. Old Boston was never to 
be what it had been, though the seeds sown through 
the years that had elapsed since the first step was 
taken by Winthrop and his fellows in England were 
to bear much fruit, and it remains for us to ask what 
that fruit was. The war had changed every thing ; not 
only were the most forward people " new," but the 
very streets themselves began to change, and those 
regions that before the war had been frequented by 
the fashion and wealth of the day, were by degrees 
deserted, and the move toward the south and west 
ends began. The North End, especially, lost by de- 
grees its precedence, and in process of time was 
almost completely abandoned by those families 
which had given it its character. f The population 

* " The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen," page 256. 

f Boston was divided into three natural parts. The " North End," 
containing about seven hundred dwelling-houses and tenements, and 
six meeting-houses, which was the court end before the Revolution, 
extending only to Blackstone Street. The " West End," or " New 
Boston," comprised less than two hundred dwellings and tenements, 
and one meeting-house. It was somewhat sheltered from the east 
winds, antl was very pleasant. The largest territorial division was 
the " South End," practically ending at Dover Street, which included 
all the regions south of Blackstone Street and east of the present Tre- 
mont Street. In this part of town were all of the public buildings 
(except the powder-house), and there were ten meeting-houses and 
more than twelve hundred dwellings, some of them elegant. It was 
the seat of business, and contained the principal shops and ware- 
houses. Shurtleff's "Topographical and Historical Description of 
Boston," page 138. 



398 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

was much less at the end of the war than it had 
been at the opening of hostilities, and New York and 
Philadelphia then took the lead that they have kept. 
It was ten years before Boston regained its former 
numerical strength. 

Commerce and manufactures had suffered, and, 
like the confederacy, the town and the state were 
unable to pay their debts. It was the first duty of 
the townspeople to make efforts to retrieve their 
financial losses. Though, as has been said, " the 
great industries which have built up the Massachu- 
setts of our time, in a material sense, were estab- 
lished on quite a secure footing " during the first 
generation of the history of Boston, yet shipbuild- 
ing, fishing and navigation were the most prominent 
occupations before the Revolution, while rum was 
the chief manufacture.* In a statement of the com- 
mercial condition of Massachusetts, made in i/S^j 
the importance of the manufacture of rum was dis- 
tinctly shown.f The course of trade was exhibited 
thus : 

" A great part of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay 
live chiefly by the sea, and are employed in fisheries, 
navigation, and building and providing materials for 
ships. They depend on Great Britain for clothes, ma- 
terials for furnishing their houses, cordage and sail-cloth 
for equipment of their vessels, their lines, hooks and 
cables for the fishery. They are dependent on the 
northern colonies for bread corn. Rum is their chief 

* Winsor's " Memorial History of Boston," vol. iv.. page 69. 
f Minot's continuation of Thomas Hutchinson's "History of the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay," vol. i., page 155. 



RUM EXCHANGED FOR SLAVES. 399 

manufacture, there being upwards of fifteen thousand 
hogsheads of rum manufactured in the provdnce annu- 
ally. This, with what they get from the English islands, 
is the grand support of all their trades and fishery, 
and without it they can no longer subsist. Rum is a 
standing article in the Indian trade and the common 
drink of all the laborers, timber-men, mast-men, loggers 
and fishermen in the province. These men could not 
endure the hardships of their employments nor the rigor 
of the seasons without it. . . . The rum carried 
from Massachusetts Bay, and other northern colonies, to 
the coast of Guinea, is exchanged for gold and slaves. 
The gold is sent to London to help pay for their annual 
supplies, and the slaves are carried to the English sugar 
colonies, and exchanged for their commodities." 

This extract illustrates the character of the com- 
mercial activity of the Bostonians, as well as the 
freedom with which they used a particular creature 
comfort, and the dependence of the people upon rhe 
mother-country for most of their manufactured arti- 
cles. When the Revolution began, Boston families 
expected that the household loom would give them 
most of their textile fabrics, and it was the good 
pleasure of England that no provision more system- 
atic and extensive should be introduced, for it would 
deprive her of a market for her goods if America 
should supply herself. Of what good, indeed, were 
colonies, if they did not stimulate the industry and 
commerce of the land from which their settlers went 
forth ? Such was the narrow policy accepted gen- 
erally in Europe, and England was only following 
the fashion in endeavoring to restrict the Americans. 



400 THE OLD ORDER CHANGE TH. 

During the war, not only political but also indus- 
trial independence had been aimed at, and manu- 
factures were encouraged so effectually that when 
the struggle ended there was apparent prosperity in 
business circles. Many fortunes had been accumu- 
lated, also, in the dangerous pursuits of the priva- 
teersman, and as commerce increased after the peace, 
an era of extravagance opened, and luxuries and 
comforts previously unknown were found in Boston 
homes. Still, in the average household the comforts 
were few, if compared with the condition of affairs 
in our day. The house was perhaps unpainted ; sand 
was still strewed over the floors instead of carpets ; 
great caverns yawned at the chimney side, and poured 
forth apparently but one half of the heat of the burn- 
ing logs, and more than that proportion of the blind- 
ing smoke. Electricity, gas, and even kerosene oil, 
for purposes of lighting, were not dreamed of, and 
dimly burning whale oil made the darkness visible 
and the atmosphere detestable. Dress was thor- 
oughly studied, both in regard to fashion and cost, 
and carefully preserved, so that many a fair bride's 
wedding gown has been carried down to a generation 
which will never preserve its own less costly gar- 
ments for a granddaughter or great-granddaughter. 
The burden of debt left by war to which reference 
has been made, was so great that commerce soon 
began to feel its influence. This, united with the ex- 
travagance of the times, brought many debtors into 
the hands of the law, and very soon dissatisfied 
men, especially in the western part of Massachusetts, 
besfan to inveigh against the courts as " engines of 



402 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

destruction," and in a few years the outburst known 
as the " Shay's Rebellion " disturbed the common- 
wealth. Demagogues and tories were interested 
thus to break the public peace in the hopes of 
making some nefarious gain. 

It is evident that quite different public men were 
needed for these times of building up a common- 
wealth from those who fought the battle of freedom 
and won the prize independence. Samuel Adams 
showed himself unadapted to the times. He was not 
at home in the extravagant routs and balls and glit- 
tering assemblies that are noted in the history of the 
period, though doubtless they were innocent and 
even tame in comparison with similar dissipations at 
the present day. He came into conflict with his 
ancient ally, Hancock, in this matter, for Hancock 
was, as we know, of an ostentatious and profuse hos- 
pitality, and went to extremes in his efforts to sur- 
round himself as governor with consequence and 
dignity. Mr. Hancock carried his notions of official 
dignity too far at times. In tire autumn of 1789, the 
year after the adoption of the federal constitution, 
Washington visited Boston, and was received with 
every token of reverential delight. In Cambridge, 
where he stopped an hour to look at his former 
headquarters, a thousand militia-men in line formal- 
ly saluted him, and a long procession escorted him 
to the State House, where an ode in his honor was 
sung by a choir in a triumphal arch near by. Han- 
cock, who was then governor, chose to expect the 
president to call and pay his respects to the chief 
magistrate of the commonwealth, but as Washing- 



ADAMS LOSES PRESTIGE. 403 

ton did not agree with him, Hancock called in his 
old friend the gout, and, making that an excuse for 
more prompt action, appeared at the president's 
quarters swathed in flannel and carried on the shoul- 
ders of attendants. State sovereignty bowed to fed- 
eral supremacy, and all went well ! 

Adams was firmly opposed to any treaty of peace 
with England unless the full rights of the Americans 
in the Newfoundland fisheries were restored and con- 
firmed, for their value to Boston trade was esteemed 
then even more than in after-times. Under his influ- 
ence the reigning toast in the East was, according to 
Marbois the French agent, " No peace without the 
fisheries." Adams also resisted all measures designed 
to reinstate the tories in their previous position of 
respect or even toleration. He considered them trait- 
ors to the American cause, and not entitled to any 
mercy. Though much in public life, though three 
times chosen governor of the state, and always pos- 
sessed of great influence, he did not move the people 
as in former times. When the question of adopting 
the constitution of the nation came up in 1788, he was 
fearful lest the people were founding a federal union 
which would swiftly and imperceptibly run into a 
consolidated government, pervading and legislating 
through all the states ; not for federal purposes 
only, as it professed, but in all cases whatsoever. 
Such a government, he thought, would soon totally 
annihilate the sovereignty of the several states, so 
necessary to the support of the confederated com- 
monwealth, and sink both in despotism.* While op- 

* See letter to Richard Henry Lee, quoted in Wells'.s "Life," ve!. 
iii., page 273. 



404 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

posing the hasty rejection of the constitution, Adams 
urged the adoption of an amendment which should 
give security on this point. 

The struggle that preceded the adoption of the 
constitution in 1788 was long and active, and di- 
vided the people of Boston into two parties, that 
became well defined. The opponents of a strong 
central government, who had sympathized with 
the Shays' rebellion, took sides against it; but 
the conservatives, now called Federalists, firmly 
supported the constitution, and labored for a strong 
republican government which could make itself 
respected at home and abroad. Hancock was brought 
over to this side, as has already been stated,* and, by 
means of a meeting of the mechanics at the Green 
Dragon tavern, under the lead of Paul Revere, 
Adams was influenced to give it his still influential 
help. The Federalists won the day, having a major- 
ity of nineteen votes, and the decision was solemnly 
declared in the church on Long Lane, where the 
sessions had been held. The church and street were 
thenceforward known by the name Federal Street. 
There was great joy on this occasion ; the citizens 
went in procession to the houses of the representa- 
tives of the town who had sat in the convention, and 
saluted them ; there were appropriate badges on the 
rejoicing citizens, and there were salutes from can- 
non, and finally a dinner in Faneuil Hall. In 1797 
Mr. Adams finally retired from political life, his last 
public paper being a proclamation for the annual 
Fast Day. The Father of the American Revolution 
* See page 350. 



FEAJiS OF FEUDALISM. 405 

lived until Sunday morning, October 2, 1803, when 
his long and useful life came to an end. 

During the last years of the life of Mr. Adams, 
slavery, though never formally abolished, came to 
an end in the state, and in 1783 it was declared from 
the bench that it no longer existed. Previous to 
that date the newspapers familiarized the minds of 
the people with the good points of " prime young 
slaves from the Windward Coast," or the bad traits 
of "a pock-broken fellow, a scar on one of his shins," 
who had " lost one of his fore teeth, and pretended 
to be a doctor," a fugitive from a perhaps not too 
indulgent master. " A likely hearty male negro 
child " is offered to be given away, or a likely negro 
woman " about thirty-five years of age," recom- 
mended for her honesty, is offered for sale cheap for 
cash. After 1783 such things ceased to be. 

The next year Boston was stirred, or rather many 
patriots were stirred, with apprehensions lest the 
newly formed society of the Cincinnati should give 
birth to an aristocracy, should become joint pro- 
prietors of vast tracts of land, people their territories 
with multitudes from Germany, oblige them to live 
in feudal servitude, and thus raise up something like 
the mediaeval system, dangerous to the state. Such 
fears seem absurd to us now, when the government 
has proved its strength for a hundred years, but at 
that time, when the very existence of the Union was 
new and experimental, it is not strange that those 
who, like Adams, had struggled for independence, 
trembled at the thought of any risk. 

Before the tumults of war had yet left the 



406 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

citizens of Boston to the quiet necessary for the 
conquests of peace, some of them began to look 
towards the Great West, and to ask themselves 
what might be done to extend to those little-known 
regions the benefits that the war had been fought to 
obtain. It was a natural fruit of the education 
through which the town had passed under the 
guidance of such men as Adams, and it became a 
marked trait in the character of the Bostonians. 
They never ceased to endeavor to influence the 
other portions of the land in the direction of right, 
as they conceived it. 

It was on the first day of March that a seed was 
dropped in the familiar " Bunch of Grapes " tavern, 
which bore fruit in the " Northwestern Territory," 
and gave their permanent character to the states 
which were formed in that region. Soon after peace 
General Rufus Putnam, an officer of the Massa- 
chusetts line, the same one who had furnished the 
successful plan for the fortifications on Dorchester 
Heights, in company with two hundred and eighty- 
two other officers, petitioned Congress for a grant 
of lands in this region, and Putnam himself wrote 
an elaborate letter to Washington requesting his 
influence in its favor. In this letter the veteran 
officer, who had practical knowledge of the work of 
a surveyor, suggested the plan for the districting of 
the region, and he also urged the setting apart of a 
portion of each township for the support of schools 
and the ministry, a plan which was adopted and has 
ever since been followed. Putnam rightly thought 
that it was " of great consequence to the American 



THE OHIO SETTLEMENT. 407 

empire," that the vast region south of the lakes 
should be filled with inhabitants who should be 
loyal subjects of the United States, and " banish 
forever the idea of our western territory falling 
under the dominion of any European power," as 
well as that the eastern States should thus be 
" effectually secured from savage alarms." He wrote 
to Washington again, in 1784, that the settlement 
of the Ohio country engrossed his thoughts and 
much of his time, and that he believed that there 
were thousands who would remove thither as soon 
as Congress should open the way. Little did he 
dream of the great immigrations of subsequent 
years. In June, 1785, Putnam received in Boston 
notice that Congress had appointed him one of the 
surveyors of the Ohio lands, but being at the time 
otherwise occupied, he urged the substitution of 
General Benjamin Tupper, another Massachusetts 
soldier, and that gentleman went to the Ohio 
country. Tupper returned with testimony that in- 
creased Putnam's.interest in the proposed coloniza- 
tion scheme. The two Massachusetts generals 
therefore proposed an association for the purpose of 
buying lands of the government, and once, on the 
ninth of January, they spent almost the whole of 
the night in conference on the momentous subject. 
The result was that the next morning they com- 
posed a circular proposing a convention for the 
purpose of perfecting an association uniting the 
ofificers and soldiers who had served in the war, as 
well as " all other good citizens who wish to be- 
come adventurers in that delicrhtful region." So slow 



40<S THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

were the methods of publication at the time that it 
was not until the twenty-fifth of January, 1786, that 
the persons appealed to read in the public prints 
under the head, " INFORMATION," the call that was 
put forth by the two generals. The meeting was 
held at the " Bunch of Grapes," as we have said, and 
an association formed. It included Manasseh Cut- 
ler, who carried the negotiation with Congress to a 
successful termination, and Winthrop Sargent, who 
became secretary, and rendered important assistance. 
Other meetings were held at Bracket's tavern, 
otherwise known as "Cromwell's Head," on Latin- 
school Street, but with them we cannot meddle. It 
is sufficient to record the impulse that Boston gave 
to western immigration at the important moment 
when its character was to be formed. It was cer- 
tainly a Boston notion, that of setting off two full 
townships for a university, and two particular sec- 
tions of a mile square in every township for the 
support of schools and religion.* 

Though all New England was .interested in the 
scheme for the settlement of the Ohio region, and 
though many Boston men were specially attracted 
to it, it was but one among many movements for 
the increase of the influence and wealth of the town 
which had their birth in the years following the close 
of the war. Probably the building of the bridge to 
Charlcstown is as good an indication as any of the 
progress in material resources, for it was the greatest 
undertaking of the kind that had ever been pro- 
jected in America. There was still but one mode 

* In order tliat lliere might be no doubt about this latter provision 
the sections numbered sixteen and twenty-nine \\ere sj)ecified. 



A NEW BRIDGE. 4O9 

of access to Boston — the Neck. The new bridge was 
fifteen hundred and three feet long and forty-three 
feet wide, and it was formally opened on the anni- 
versary of the battle of Bunker Hill, in 1786. There 
were military salutes at sunrise, and peals from 
the bells of the church which served as a beacon 
when Paul Revere wished to warn the people of 
Charlestown that the British were leaving Boston for 
Lexington by water. A procession consisting " of 
almost every respectable character in public and 
private life " moved from State Street in the after- 
noon, and, amid salutes from the Castle and from 
cannon on Breed's Hill and Copp's Hill, and honors 
from the companies of artillery and artificers, 
marched over the new structure to the site of the 
battle, where tables were spread, and the remainder 
of the day was spent in " sober festivity," as the 
historian Snow observes. This was the beginning 
of the work of connecting the promontory with the 
mainland by means of bridges, the latest of which, 
the Harvard Bridge, to be completed during the 
present year, is by far the finest of all. Cambridge 
was next thus brought into communication with 
Boston by the West Boston Bridge, completed in 
1793. The bridge to Dorchester Neck, a tract 
which was at the time " annexed " to Boston and 
called South Boston, was completed in 1805. Four 
years later, on Commencement Day, 1809, the 
Craigie Bridge to East Cambridge was opened to the 
public, and there were then five avenues into the 
city.* " All these bridges," says Snow, " are well 

* At the present time the waters about Boston are crowded with 
bridges, and they are a considerable obstruction to vessels. 



4IO THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. 

lighted by lamps when the eveninj^s are dark, and 
the lights, placed at regular distances, have a splen- 
did and romantic appearance." It is certainly true 
that the many lights on the long low bridges that 
span the waters around Boston still have a very at- 
tractive appearance, now that they are produced by 
gas or electricity. 

More important than any of these bridge projects 
for the future of the town was the Boston and Rox- 
bury Mill Corporation, a scheme projected by Mr. 
Uriah Cotting, since called the Chief Benefactor of 
Boston. It was a stupendous project for the time, 
for it contemplated the building of a dam forty-two 
feet wide with a roadway upon it twenty-two hun- 
dred feet in length, reaching from the foot of Beacon 
Hill to Brookline, which was at that time accessible 
only byway of Roxbury over the Neck. This great 
dam was intended to confine the waters of the Back 
Bay in such a way that they could be used for mill 
purposes. The company was chartered in 1814, but 
it was not until 1821 that the road was opened to 
passengers. The enterprise was opposed with the 
vigor that projects for the good of a town are pretty 
certain to meet, one indignant citizen writing to the 
Advertiser ."^ in the following excited terms : 

" Citizens of Boston ! Have you ever visited the 
Mall ; have you ever inhaled the western breeze, fra- 
grant with perfume, refreshing every sense, and invigo- 
rating every nerve ? What think you of converting the 
beautiful sheet of water which skirts the Common into 
an empty mud-basin, reeking with filth, abhorrent to the 

* Quoted in Winsor's " Memorial History," vol. iv., page 33. 



412 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETII. 

smell, and distasteful to the eye ? By every god of sea, 
lake, or fountain, it is incredible ! " 

The process of improving this portion of Boston 
was not, it must be confessed, an agreeable one, and 
in 1849 ^1^^ Board of Health declared that the region 
had become a "nuisance, offensive and injurious to 
the large and increasing population residing upon 
it," for it was then an open cesspool, receiving the 
sewage of a large community. Then measures were 
taken in earnest to overcome the difficulty. 

Before the beginning of the present century the 
territory of Boston remained of the same form that 
it had in the earliest times. The North End was 
separated from the rest of the promontory by an 
inlet which put up from the Bay at the present 
Blackstone Street and became eventually Mill Creek, 
affording vessels a passage through to Mill Cove, an 
enlargement of the Charles River, which also was 
changed in time to Mill Pond by the formation of 
a dam or causeway across its mouth. In 1643 this 
cove was granted to four partners on condition that 
they would erect one or more corn-mills on or near 
the premises. One hundred and sixty-one years 
after this grant (in 1804), the successors of the men 
to whom it was made were incorporated as the 
Boston Mill Corporation, and they proceeded to fill 
up the pond, obtaining the necessary earth by dig- 
ging away Beacon Hill. By this process fifty acres 
were added to the area of Boston, and the shore 
line much altered. The railways running to the 
northward all start from stations erected on the 



DIGGING DOWN HILLS. 



413 



land thus formed. At a later period both Copp's 
Hill and Pemberton Hill were made tributary to 
this filling in of the Mill Pond,"" and the topography 
of the town was thus materially changed. 

* The digging down of Copp's Hill was begun in 1806, and was 
continued for several years. Pemberton (formerly Cotton's) Hill, 
famed for the elegant estate of Gardiner Greene, fell into the hands 
of others upon Mr. Greene's death in 1832, and was laid out in lots 
after the grading had been completed. 







XXVIII. 

THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

Boston was deeply interested in the convulsions 
in Europe preceding and during the wars of Napo- 
leon, for in the earlier period her merchant ships 
reaped a rich harvest in the carrying-trade, and great 
fortunes were built up by the enterprising adventur- 
ers. This state of affairs was not destined to con- 
tinue long, for Great Britain was just as desirous 
after the peace as she had been before to cripple the 
commercial progress of the Americans. In every 
way practicable the shipping business was hampered 
by restrictions laid uj)on it by the British govern- 
ment, for England was determined not to allow the 
carrying trade to pass away from her if it could be 
avoided. Indignation rose so high in Boston, only 
three years after the war had closed, that a business- 
men's meeting was held in Faneuil Hall (April i6, 
1785), at which it was voted not to have any com- 
mercial relations with the British mercantile agents 
in America, who were receiving large consignments 
of goods, " greatly to the hindrance of freight in all 
American vessels." A call was made upon all other 
sea-ports to enter into similar agreements, and a 
memorial to Congress was ordered. In the follow- 

414 



THREATS OF SECESSION. 415 

ing July the legislature of Massachusetts doubled 
the duties on goods brought to the ports of the 
commonwealth in British vessels, and entirely pro- 
hibited the exportation of American products in 
British ships, until the odious restrictions should be 
removed. London soon felt the pressure, and some 
houses there failed ; but the government was not to 
be easily turned aside from its plan. Neither were 
Boston merchants to be baffled, and they gave their 
attention to the Eastern trade, sending many vessels 
to China, and reaping large returns from their in- 
telligent activity. The wars between England and 
France complicated matters. American shipowners 
found themselves suffering greatly, and in 1807, when 
Jefferson enforced his embargo in consequence of 
the Milan Decrees of Napoleon and the British 
Orders in Council, the commerce of Boston was 
almost destroyed, and the party feelings that were 
engendered ran so high that there were threats of 
"secession," such as had been uttered in Boston 
when Louisiana was bought, — such as were to be 
heard from Josiah Quincy in Congress apropos of 
the plan to form a state west of the Mississippi 
River.'^ John Quincy Adams informed the Presi- 
dent that the embargo could not be enforced in New 
England, tliat the Federalist leaders were making 
arrangements to break off from the Union, and had 
received an offer of aid from the English govern- 

* The essential portion of the speech referred to (delivered in Janu- 
ary, 181 1), maybe read in Edmund Quincy's " Life of Josiah Quincy," 
pages 206-213. This has been pronounced the " first announcement " 
of the doctrine of secession " on the floor of Congress." 



4l6 THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

ment.* Such representations as these about his 
political opponents moved the President and mem- 
bers of Congress on the RepubHcan side, and the 
Non-Intercourse Act took the place of the embargo, 
March 4, 1809. 

The harm had been done, however, and the ships 
rotted at the Boston wharves or were taken from 
service and dismantled ; shipyards were deserted ; 
the fisheries were given up, and even the farmer felt 
the pervading distress ; ruin stared the merchant in 
the face, and the laboring man knew not in which 
direction to look for work. Meanwhile the second 
war with Great Britain came on, in opposition to the 
interests and desires of the people of Boston. f Then 

* The correspondence of Josiah Quincy might have afforded some 
ground for a statement like this, for Mr. Harrison Gray Otis wrote to 
him, December 15, 1808, "it would be a great misfortune for us to 
justify the obloquy of wishing to promote a separation of the states 
and of being solitary in that pursuit." At the same time Mr. Otis 
suggested a convention of delegates from the commercial states "at 
Hartford or elsewhere, for the purpose of providing some mode of 
relief that may not be inconsistent with the Union of these states." 
The Federalists did not hold their convention at Hartford until 
December 15, 1814, just as the war which they had opposed was 
closing. It was, as President Woolsey has said, a scheme " with an 
ugly look," and though it declared that "no hostility to the constitu- 
tion " was intended, its actions called out the statement from the 
Richmond Enquirer^ that " no man, no association of men, no State 
or set of States, has a right to withdraw itself from the Union of its 
own accord," and it was supposed to have uttered the principles of 
nullification as clearly as South Carolina ever did. 

f Josiah Quincy, then the leader in the Massachusetts senate, 
showed the feeling of Boston l)y drawing up an address, protesting 
against the war as impolitic and unjust, and the action was followed 
in other states. We read in Mr. Quincy's " Life," that the stagnation 
of business carried distress and anxiety into every New England house- 



THE GRAND PEACE BALL. 417 

there was no use for vessels except as privateers, 
domestic produce rose greatly in value, and imported 
goods were held at very high prices ; money was 
scarce, and men were reduced to straits to supply 
the wants of their households. Peace was declared in 
February, 181 5, and though it did not in explicit terms 
secure a single one of the objects for which the war 
had been fought, it was welcomed with rejoicings on 
all sides. Notwithstanding the fact that the war did 
not explicitly ensure " free trade and sailor's rights," 
as the watchword of its supporters demanded that 
it should, it was evident that the naval supremacy 
of Great Britain had been worthily challenged, and 
that England could not longer be said to rule the 
seas, and there was no further impressment of sea- 
men from American vessels. 

When the news of peace reached Boston, an extra 
number of the Eveumg Gazette was issued, giving 
the announcement in the barest terms, and on the 
twenty-fourth of February there was a grand ball in 
the concert hall on Hanover Street, which had 
been long before a resort of friends of liberty. A 
lady who entertained scruples about attending a 
public ball, fired by the enthusiasm of the occasion, 
went, and she describes her costume in the following 
words: " My dress was a sheer dotted muslin skirt, 
trimmed with three rows of plaited white satin rib- 
bon an inch wide. The boddice of white satin was 
also trimmed with the same ribbon. I wore white 

hold, and the ruin of the commercial states seemed to be settled. 
The Massachusetts legislature refused to furnish troops at the call of 
the President. 



41 8 THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

lace around the neck, a bouquet, gold ornaments, 
chain, etc. My hair was arranged in braids, bandeau, 
and curls. The building," continues the same lady, 
"was illuminated within and without, and was 
decorated with flags and flowers." The few British 
officers who were present seem to have been the 
favorites with the ladies. The floor was arranged for 
dancing, and had a springing motion, which our lady 
informant declares she " never saw equalled." So 
sreat was the social rebound from the trials of war* 
that one of the Boston ministers felt called upon to 
remind his congregation, in a sermon, of the necessity 
that still remained for the practice of forbearance 
and self-denial ! 

During the long period since Governor Winthrop 
set foot on the peninsula of Shawmut to the time 
now under consideration, Boston was a simple de- 
mocracy. It was the duty of every freeman to 
meet at some appointed place, when called upon, 
to confer upon the interests of the town. The 
government was first of the most informal sort ; 
Winthrop and nine others seem to have acted for 
the whole body during the intervals between the 
meetings, which occurred at first twice each year. 
They were known as the " ten men," or the " town's 
men," until 1643, when they are incidentally men- 
tioned on the records as " selectmen," a name which 
was fixed upon them after 1647, in which year their 
election became annual. The semi-annual meetings 
of the freemen were warned from house to house, — 

* See Winsor's History, vol. iv., j). 22, for more particulars in re- 
gard to the return of peace. 



SELECTMEN'S DINNERS. 419 

a very slow method one would suppose. Altogether 
the town system was a bungling one for commu- 
nities of much size, although in small places it was 
exceedingly effective under skilful guidance, as a 
means of bringing the sentiment of all the citizens 
to bear upon one point. 

As early as 1650 the difificulties of the informal 
government were apparent, and Boston petitioned 
the general court that it might become a corpora- 
tion ; but there is no evidence that the court took 
any steps in the premises. The original plan was 
economical, for, in the earliest times, at least, the 
"town's men" not only received no pay for their 
services, but were allowed to liquidate their own in- 
cidental expenses. In 1637, it was agreed that the 
charges for the meetings of the town's men should 
be borne by the town in general, and the gentlemen 
soon found it convenient to " refresh " themselves 
after their arduous duties. Thus in 1647 a charge 
was made of two pounds eighteen shillings for " a 
selectmen's dinner," and a custom arose that has 
been followed until very late times. The " junket- 
ings " of the city fathers have sometimes reached 
such an extent as to spread dismay among the less 
favored citizens who were permitted to pay the ex- 
penses of the government. 

Though the general court did not take steps to 
constitute Boston a corporation in 1650, it allowed 
it to choose seven commissioners in 165 1, who were 
magistrates authorized to hear and give judgment 
upon civil actions; but in 1708, the selectmen re- 
ported that the government was inefficient because 



420 THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

there was no " proper head " through whom the law 
should be put into execution, and they thought that 
as the town was growing more populous, good order 
could not be expected without more strict regulation. 
They therefore urged that a charter of incorporation 
be prepared for presentation at the next annual 
meeting of the town. A committee was appointed, 
and a schenie drawn up. It was in due time pre- 
sented to the town, and, though most of the prin- 
cipal inhabitants were in favor of it, the people felt 
misgivings lest some of their privileges were to be 
taken away, and it was voted down. One of the 
popular champions made a conclusive speech, ending 
with the warning: "It is a whelp now, it will be a 
lion by-and-by; knock it in the head! Mr. Moder- 
ator, put the question ! " The " whelp " was killed, 
and no effort of a similar nature seems to have been 
made until the March meeting in 1762, when the 
freemen voted, almost unanimously, that no steps 
should be taken towards making the town a cor- 
poration. 

Meantime the difificulties of the situation were in- 
creasing. It was found that no public building could 
possibly hold all of the freemen, if they should all 
attend a meeting, and even though but a small 
proportion appeared, it was impracticable for them 
all to take part in the discussion, or even to hear all 
that was said by others. The result naturally was 
that the control of the affairs of Boston, fell into the 
hands of a small number of persons, and, though at 
the time these were the persons best qualified to 
give them proper direction, it was not at all the 



A'O INNOVATIONS WANTED. 42 I 

normal condition of things, nor that likely to con- 
tinue satisfactory. In case of an exciting subject 
coming up the hall would be crowded ; but on other 
occasions the business was carried through by thirty 
or forty persons besides the town officers. The 
majority of the citizens took things upon trust, and 
few gave public affairs careful consideration. 

The intervals between the discussions of the sub- 
ject of a city government were becoming shorter. 
The matter laid quiet fifty-eight years after the first 
proposition of 1650; fifty-four years elapsed before 
the discussion of 1762 ; and in twenty-years it came 
up again. Upon its presentation in 1784, at a 
meeting especially called to consider a carefully 
prepared plan, there was " an unabated roaring," and 
amid the cries of " No corporation — No Mayor and 
aldermen — No innovations ! " there were incessant 
calls for the question; no discussion was allowed," 
and the vote was recorded against the plan. Similar 
efforts were made in 1791, 1804, and 181 5, all without 
succcess, though the need of a more efficient police, 
as well as one responsible head " to take a general 
oversight," was generally felt, and the difficulties of 
transacting public business increased. The plan pre- 
sented in the year last mentioned approached more 
nearly the form of a city government than any which 
had preceded it. It provided for an " intendant," 
and a " municipality " consisting of two citizens from 
each ward, and a body of selectmen chosen by the 
citizens generally. This scheme was defeated by the 
very small majority of thirty-one. 

On the last day of December, 1821, the town was 



422 THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

called to consider and act upon another plan for a 
city organization. 

In his municipal history of Boston, Mr. Quincy 
shows that in view of the want of safety and respon- 
sibility of the loose methods of the town government, 
the " inherited and inveterate antipathy to a city 
organization " had now much diminished. The loose- 
ness of the financial methods are astonishing, and 
are only to be explained on the hypothesis that each 
freeman had entire confidence in every other. The 
selectmen, overseers of the poor, and board of health 
were the " committee on finance," which exercised 
the whole power of taxation. After the money was 
collected by an ofificer whom the three boards ap- 
pointed, it was kept by a treasurer whom they also 
chose, and spent by them as they pleased, each board 
taking as much as it deemed requisite for its pur- 
poses. The amount to be raised annually was form- 
ally voted by the town meeting of which the members 
of the board were apt to contribute the majority of 
the freemen present. It is not strange that great in- 
terest attached to the subject at this time. 

For three days Faneuil Hall was thronged, and 
earnest but decorous discussions were carried on by 
some of the most respected citizens. On Monday, 
January 7, 1822, the final ballots were cast which 
decided the long-discussed subject. It was voted 
that there should be a city government, and that 
the name of the town should be changed to the City 
of Boston. A charter was granted by the legislature 
and signed by the governor, February 23d. The 
charter was accepted by the people at its last town- 
meeting, held March 4th, and the governor announced 



ELECTING THE FIRST MA YOR. 423 

the fact by proclamation, three days later. The first 
day of May was designated as the beginning of the 
municipal year, and it was necessary that the city 
should be divided into wards before the second 
Monday in April, in order that upon that day there 
should be an election of mayor and aldermen and 
subordinate officers. The inferior offices gave no 
trouble, for it was found practicable to divide them 
among the different political parties in such a way 
that each was satisfied ; but, as Dr. Snow observes, 
the mayoralty was " an honor that could not be 
divided," and a spirited contest immediately opened 
for that office. 

Mr. Josiah Quincy had been chairman of the final 
town-meeting, and it was considered by many promi- 
nent citizens that he was the man for the chief 
magistracy. Mr. Quincy accepted a nomination, not 
knowing, it is said, that other citizens proposed to 
raise Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, who had lately resigned 
his seat in the United States senate, to that office, as 
a stepping-stone to the higher post of governor. Mr. 
Otis was a gentleman of " the old school," who had 
long been prominent in public affairs, though, partly 
because he had been a member of the Hartford Con- 
vention, his popularity was at this time considerably 
less than it had formerly been.* Mr. Quincy pos- 
sessed many traits that fitted him for the office to 

* Mr. Otis was one of the Latin-School boys, who attended Master 
Lovell's celebrated institution the last time on the morning of April 
19. I775> passing, on his way, by the British troops who occupied 
Tremont Street from Scollay's Building almost to the bottom of the 
Mall, and running home as fast as his young legs would carry him, 
for fear of the soldiers, when he heard the words, deponite lihros, with 
which the exercises were indefinitely postponed. 



424 THE TOWN BECOMES A CITY. 

which he was nominated, though he had resisted the 
effort to make a city of the town, because he be- 
lieved that the pure democracy of the town-meeting 
was less liable to abuse and more suited to the New 
England character than the more compact form. 

On the eve of the election another candidate was 
nominated, and the next day his name was presented 
at the polls, without his knowledge, and much to his 
displeasure, with such success as to draw enough 
votes to prevent an election. Thus the era of city 
government seemed to fulfil Mr. Ouincy's prophetic 
opinion, by opening with a small political trick. Mr. 
Quincy and Mr. Otis immediately withdrew from 
the contest, and Mr. John Phillips, a person who was 
familiar with public business, and who bore an un- 
disputed character for honesty, discretion, and sound 
judgment, was, after a few days of great excitement, 
chosen to the position by a vote almost unanimous. 

Great preparation was made for the inauguration 
of the new government. At the appointed hour, 
Faneuil Hall was filled to excess; the newly chosen 
officers occupied positions of prominence on a plat- 
form erected for the purpose, and two of the galleries 
were filled with ladies. After a prayer by the senior 
minister of the city, the oaths were administered, 
and the chairman of the retiring board of selectmen 
delivered an address to the mayor, handing him a 
silver case containing the town charter and books of 
records, after which Mayor Phillips made his address. 
In the course of his remarks, Mr. Phillips said : 
" Purity of manners, general diffusion of knowledge, 
and strict attention to the education of the young, 
and above all a firm practical belief of that di- 



SICU T PA TRIE US. 42 5 

vine revelation which has affixed the penalty of 
unceasing anguish to vice and promised to virtue 
rewards of interminable duration, will counteract the 
evils of any form of government." Mr. Phillips' son, 
the late Wendell Phillips, relates that his father built 
the first brick dwelling on Beacon street. It stood on 
the corner of Walnut, next to the stone house of John 
Hancock, and was thought so remote from the other 
dwellings that his uncle, Judge Oliver Wendell, was 
asked what had induced his nephew " to remove out 
of town." 

Mr. Phillips conceived it to be his duty simply to 
organize the new government, to make the people of 
Boston familiar with an unaccustomed and some- 
what uncongenial form, with as little friction as 
possible ; to make as few innovations as were con- 
sistent with effectual work. As Mr. Otis said, he 
" respected the force of ancient and honest preju- 
dices," and, in making a novel experiment, aimed 
" to reconcile by gentle reform, not to revolt by 
startling innovation." He accomplished this with 
much success. Naturally such a prudent line of con- 
duct was not adapted to give cause for complaint, 
neither was it likely to excite special admiration ; 
and many felt disappointed that no more energy 
characterized the new government. 

The feelings of the officials, as well as of the citi- 
zens generally, are shown in the motto adopted for 
the municipal seal, — Sicict patribtis, sit Dens nobis, 
" As God was with our fathers, so may he be with 
us," — an adaptation of the fifty-seventh verse of the 
eighth chapter of the first book of Kings, as it 
appears in the Latin vulgate. 



WIX. 



Ill' SITONP MAYOR. 



A r the liinc of which wc h.iw- nin\- to treat l^oston 
is said to have boon more purely English than auv 
town of its size in Knglatui itself. It was. as the 
biographer of Josiah Ouincy sax's, singularly lunui^- 
geneous in its population; "the great Irish and 
'(lornian emigrations hatl not then set in. ' .uul it is 
probable that no town of fift)' or sixty thousand 
inhabitants eould ha\e been kept in jKMee .uul s.ifet\' 
with so small a bod}' of w.itehmen as proved ec]ual 
to the requirements of the Puritan cit)'. There 
were, we are told, but twent\'-four policemen, .uul .it 
night not more than eighteen watchmen were on 
duty at a tinu\ This pe.icefulness is accountetl for 
b\' the fact just nuMUioned. that the inhabitants of 
New England were of pure English descent, with 
but little mixture of other blood. Their ancestors 
were the W'inthrops, the Ouiiu\\-s. the SalttMistalls, 
the I^ndicotts, the Adamses, of tnher times, and it 
was a part of their heredity to keep peace themselves 
without the help of any guardians. 

When the time came for another election of chief 
magistrate, Mr. Josiah Quincy was chosen almost 
unanimousl)', and he entered upon his duties in a 

426 




JOSIAH QL'I.NCY (1772-I8O4J. 
From the portrait by Stuart how in the Museum of Fine Arts. 

427 



428 THE SECOND MA YOR. 

very different spirit from that which has been re- 
marked in his intimate friend and predecessor. Mr. 
Quincy did not take the ofifice as a stepping-stone to 
any greater position of usefulness, but he made it a 
post of signal service to his native place. He was 
a Boston man through and through, born of a line 
that was begun in the town three years after the arri- 
val of Winthrop, by an ancestor who arrived there in 
company with the Reverend John Cotton. He was 
son of Josiah Quincy "junior," whose words to his 
father, when remonstrating with him for defending 
Captain Preston for firing upon the mob at the time 
of the " Massacre," seem to have been the motto 
upon which he acted. Said Josiah Quincy "junior": 
" I never harbored the expectation, nor any great 
desire, that all men should speak well of me. To 
inquire my duty, and to do it, is my aim." * 

Mr. Quincy had been long before the Boston pub- 
lic, though he was but fifty-one years of age. His 
career may be said to have begun in 1798, when he 
delivered in the Old South church a Fourth-of-July 
oration marked by youthful enthusiasm, which drew 
passionate tears from his audience, and attracted so 
much attention that it was reprinted in Philadelphia, 
-then the seat of government, and called from Presi- 
dent Adams the statement that it was " one of the 
most precious morsels that our country has pro- 
duced upon such occasions." Mr. Quincy had been 
a member of the Massachusetts senate and of the 
Federal Congress (then sitting in Washington), of 
which he had for a time been Speaker. His chief 

* See " Memoir of Josiah Qiiinc)- Junior," by his sou, pp. 34-3'>. 



MR. QUTNCY THE REAL HEAD. 429 

practical knowledge of the problems with which he 
was now called to deal was gained while he was a 
member of the general court (where he was chairman 
of a committee appointed in 1820 to investigate pau- 
perism), and as judge of the municipal court of Boston, 
which had jurisdiction in all criminal cases not capital. 
In March, 1822, in a charge to the grand jury, Mr. 
Quincy treated the subjects of poverty, vice, and crime 
in their relations to one another ; pointed out the ne- 
cessity for reform in the methods of dealing with 
criminals, as well as for the separation of the differ- 
ent classes of convicts ; and declared in favor of 
private executions instead of the ghastly public 
" occasions " by which the Boston public had been 
brutalized, since the day when the people went 
from the " Thursday Lecture," in 1659, to see the 
three Quakers hanged, and poor Mary Dyer taken 
down from the gallows-tree by main force.* At the 
time of his election, Mr. Quincy lived in a house on 
Tremont Street, at the corner of Hamilton Place, to 
which he had removed in 1820. 

The new mayor was not only determined that the 
business of the young city should be done well, but 
he felt it desirable that he should be conversant with 
every part of it. He therefore decided to make him- 
self chairman of every one of the committees of the 
board of aldermen, and to take the "laboring oar" 
into his own hands. He then looked over the 
ground, sought out the weak places in the govern- 
ment, and the neglected places in the city, and laid 

*See " The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of the Massachu- 
setts Bay," p. 463. 



430 THE SECOND MA YOR. 

his energetic plans to strengthen the first and purify 
the others. He divided the acts that he had to per- 
form into four classes : those relating to morals, 
comfort, convenience, and ornament, and began his 
work at the first division. There was in the " West 
End," so-called, a region of the city where vice was 
audaciously obtrusive, and where murders were so 
frequent that he was assured that no man's life 
would be safe in attempting to enforce order without 
the support of the military. This was the emer- 
gency that suited Mr. Quincy's temperament. He 
examined the laws and found that, under an anti- 
quated provincial enactment, he had authority, as 
justice of the peace, to arrest the fiddlers whose 
strains inspired the orgies of the dance-houses, and 
they were arrested. He then took away the licenses 
of the tippling-houses, and the enemy succumbed 
under stress of thirst and low spirits. Wealth and 
respectability afterwards took possession of the 
region thus reclaimed. When, on another occasion, 
the constabulary proved insufficient to quell a riot 
among the most disreputable townspeople, Mr, 
Quincy put himself at the head of the sturdy " dray- 
men " and sent the rioters about their business by 
force of muscle, directed by proper strategic ability. 
Mr. Quincy looked over the lines of his municipal 
fence and saw that Philadelphia and New York man- 
aged their fires and firemen in better style than Bos- 
ton knew, and he obtained from the legislature, with 
great difficulty, be it said, the necessary powers to 
make a reform in this particular. At that time 
a fire was an event of direst confusion ; there were 



WATER-BUCKETS AND BAGS. 43 I 

thirty-six officers, all equal in authority, and no 
guiding head gave unity to the efforts for the preser- 
vation of property. At the stroke of the alarm 
every citizen so disposed rushed to the scene, if he 
could find it, armed with a water-bucket and a bag. 
Engines there were, manned by voluntary compa- 
nies, and directed by officers chosen by the people ; 
their power was small, and for water they depended 
upon the buckets brought by the citizens, who 
formed lines to the nearest pond or dock, and passed 
the supply along with what rapidity they could. 
The officers might press all passers-by into the ser- 
vice, and many a head is reported to have ached 
from knocks from the poles that they bore as tokens 
of their puny power. Mr. Quincy, with a temerity 
that astonished sober Bostonians at that time, caused 
cisterns to be provided at convenient points to sup- 
ply water ; he bought two engines and a " hydraulion " 
in Philadelphia and New York, furnished them with 
hose, and abolished the ancient confusion. The 
proposition of a fire department which should " ex- 
clude " citizens, instead of demanding their assist- 
ance, was indignantly opposed, and it was said that, 
though such laws might be obeyed in despotic coun- 
tries, or in cities where the inhabitants lack fellow- 
feeling, the men of Boston would never be prohibited 
from helping a fellow-townsman in distress. When 
engines were bought in other cities it was publicly 
asked whether the mechanics of Boston were so 
inferior in skill to those of New York and Philadel- 
phia, that public money had to be expended in 
patronage of their workmen. Every possible obsta- 



45- THE SECOXD MAYOR. 

cle was placed in the way of the inaxor in his eflforts. 
The engines were disabled in the night-time : their 
hose were cut, even at fires ; and the perpetrators of 
these acts were so thoroughly shielded that lai^ge 
rewards failed to discover them. 

IMr. Ouincy recognized the relations between 
morals and cleanliness, and saw that the subject of 
the remo\-al from the streets of all that offended the 
senses or endangered the health would at once in- 
crease municipal self-respect and add to the public 
comfort. He therefore collected all the city offal 
and utilized it upon city property, so that the outlay 
was large!}' repaid in the improvements. Streets 
that were dark and crooked were widened and 
made straight ; drains were laid ; a new mall was 
created on Charles Street ; the finances, which were 
still managed in a loose manner,* were sj^tematized 
and made effective, while the management was more 
responsible ; measures were initiated looking to olv 
taining a supply of fresh water ; a census was taken, 
and it was found that the population was fifty-eight 
thousand two hundred and eighty-one <^in 1S25) ; the 
evils to which Mr. Ouincy had before drawn atten- 
tion, resulting from the mingling of honest poor 
with rogues in the almshouse, were overcome by the 
establishment of a house of correction, and a house 
of reformation for juvenile offenders ; and finally the 
city was provided with a new and commodious 
market-house. 

* The fovir l>oanls of tlie city government at this time exercisctl 
equal and indej>endent jx^wer in disbursing public money, and were 
responsible to no one else. 



THE QUIXCV MARKET. 433 

The buildiiii;" of the market-lunise. whieh faniil- 
iarl\- i^ocs b)- Mr. Ouincy's lumie. though, owing to 
personal feehng. it did not reeeive it forniall}-. was 
the nio>t notew ort h)' e\"ent ot the second niaN'or's 
term of ottiee. Mr. Ouinc}' was accustomed to say, 
witli more truth than poetr}-. that no man could do 
his dut)' in such an office without flnall)- being 
rewarded hx being turned out. This prov^eci his 
experience, and after five elections he was. in 1828, 
relegated to private life by the votes of those whose 
projects had been disturbed by his honest efforts to 
advance the public interests. 

The market facilities of Boston, .it the time that 
Mr. Ouincy took u[i his oftice, were the same that 
they had been nearl\- one hundred years before, 
though the population had increasetl fourfold, and 
one of the first problems that he undertook to soke 
was how the\- might be increased. It was a difficult 
question, rendered unnecessarily hard of solution by 
the bitter opposition which the plan the ma\-or finally 
made encountered from prominent citizens, less 
far-seeing than he, from the members of the city 
council, and from the legislature, though it was ac- 
knowledged that Faneuil Hall Market was inadequate 
for the needs of the city, and though the situation 
was notoriously unhealthy and inconvenient of ac- 
cess. It is almost past belief that at the time the 
entire space occupied by stalls in and around Faneuil 
Hall was not more than fourteen hundred square 
feet.* The Hall itself was erected on " made " land, 
and had the town dock, with its festering filth, di- 

* Winsor's " History," vol. iii., page 22S, 



434 ^^^ SECOND MAYOR. 

rectly to the north, though now it is separated from 
the water on all sides by warehouses and streets, and 
seems to stand on solid earth. 

The difficulty of the plan that he had conceived, 
as well as the eminent desirability of giving Boston 
the facilities it needed, increased the charms of the 
undertaking in the eyes of Mr. Quincy, rather than 
daunted him, and he entered upon the work with 
persistence, and accomplished success, for which his 
name has ever since been held in grateful remem- 
brance. He opened six new streets, enlarged a 
seventh, obtained for the city unincumbered posses- 
sion of docks, flats, and wharf-rights, to the extent 
of more than three acres in the centre of the town, 
without drawing upon its resources, or creating a 
debt, but by actually adding largely to its produc- 
tive possessions. The dock was filled in, and besides 
furnishing land on which the improvements were 
erected, it gave the city an estate which was sold 
for enough to pay for the entire outlay, besides 
adding to the taxable property the value of the 
warehouses that the buyers erected. The market- 
house itself is an edifice of granite, five hundred 
and thirty-five feet in length, by fifty feet in width, 
covering over half an acre, and costing one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. This building is a per- 
manent monument to the memory of the great mayor 
of Boston.* 

Another subject to which Mr. Quincy gave atten- 

* The corner-sttMie was laid with much ceremony in April, 1S25, 
and the building was formally opened in 1826. The entire outlay 
for the improvements was more than eleven hundred thousand dollars. 



MORE WATER NEEDED. 435 

tion was the water supply for the city. At that 
period the nature of disease originating in contami- 
nated waters was not understood so well as it is at 
present, and though Mr. Quincy urged the matter with 
zeal upon the city government, he could only venture 
to base his action on the clain\s of health with 
caution. He mentioned with confidence the need 
of protection against fire, the culinary and other 
domestic necessities of the citizens, which made it 
desirable that water from a stream or pond should 
be introduced into every house in the city ; and 
then he added that " physicians of the first respect- 
ability," had urged upon him that the spring water 
of Boston was harsh, and impregnated with salts 
that impaired its excellence as an article of drink, 
and that they had " been led to the opinion that 
many complaints of obscure origin owed their 
existence to the qualities of the common spring 
water of Boston." The city was at the time supplied 
from wells and cisterns, and by water brought from 
Jamaica Pond through pine logs, and though this 
was, as Mr. Quincy said, insuf^cient, conservatism 
and interest proved so strong as to put off the day 
in which the supply could be increased for twenty- 
one years longer, when Lake Cochituate (then Long 
Pond) was tapped.* 

* The mayor at that time was " Josiah Quincy," son of the one at 
present under consideration, though the aged father, then seventy- 
four years of age, took part in the ceremony (Aug. 26th, 1846), in 
company with his son and ex-president John Quincy Adams, thus 
having the opportunity of seeing his former desires realized under tlie 
management of liis namesake. 



436 THE SECOND MA YOR. 

When the time for a new choice of mayor arrived, 
in December, 1828, Mr, Quincy failed of receiving a 
majority of the votes on the first and second ballots, 
and immediately announced that he should under 
no consideration again accept the office to which he 
had devoted his time unremittingly for so long. He 
formally laid down the harness after his notable 
career, with a final address to the other members of 
the city government, in which he rapidly glanced 
at the record of the previous six years. He spoke 
of the improvement in the conduct of the fire 
department, and of the reduction of insurance 
premiums ; of the steps taken in behalf of general 
health, and their success ; of the advance in pro- 
vision for public education ; of the reformation of 
certain portions of the city ; of the decrease of 
street-begging ; of the value of the public improve- 
ments carried through at such great personal labor 
on his own part ; and he refuted the animadversions 
of those who said: " The Mayor assumes too much. 
He does not sit solemn and dignified in his chair, 
and leave the general superintendence to others, but 
he is everywhere and about every thing, in the street, 
in the docks, among the common sewers, — no place 
but what is vexed by his presence." He laid his 
hand on the city charter and found his vindication 
by reading the duties laid upon the chief executive 
ofificer, — duties to which he was sworn, and showed 
that as he was made responsible for every thing, 
it was necessary that he should not shift the per- 
formance upon others. Recalling the assurances 
with which he entered upon his duties, he closed 



MR. QUINCY'S LAST DAYS. 437 

with the noble words of the prophet Samuel, uttered 
likewise on laying down office : " Behold, here I am. 
Witness against me. Whom have I defrauded ? 
Whom have I oppressed ? At whose hands have I 
received any bribe ? " 

Mr. Quincy lived long after this time, an honored 
citizen of his loved town,* and when partisan feel- 
ing had subsided, it was acknowledged that he had 
not only laid the foundations of the present system 
of city government in Boston, but had established 
its permanent form, for the changes that have been 
made since that time have been chiefly those that have 
been rendered necessary by the increasing population. 

* As soon as it was known that Mr. Quincy was to be no longer 
mayor of Boston, a movement was made to place him at the head of 
Harvard College, that position having been vacated by the death of 
Dr. Kirkland. The relations between Boston and the college were 
at that time even more intimate than at present. Commencement 
day was a legal holiday, and the road to Cambridge was on that day 
crowded with eager throngs on horseback, on foot, and in carriages 
of all sorts. The election of Mr. Quincy was notable, because he 
was the first person not a minister who had been thought worthy of the 
office, and because, as is said, it was the last occasion on which at the 
inauguration the Latin language was used by the president-elect and 
the governor of the State in their addresses to each other and to the 
public. Mr. Quincy removed to Cambridge with his family, and 
after his remarkable career of sixteen years there (having made such 
changes in the institution that he has been called "the great organ- 
izer of the University)," he retired to private life, and took up his 
abode in a dwelling which he had bought in anticipation of the event, 
on the top of Beacon Hill. After a dozen years he removed to a 
house fronting on the Common, where he remained until his ninety- 
second year, when he was taken to Quincy. He died on the first of 
July, 1864. 



XXX. 



THE NEW ORDER ESTABLISHED. 



The government of Boston city was now estab- 
lished. There had been two mayors ; there have 
been twenty-eight on the list in all, counting the one 
who entered upon his duties in 1889. The first one 
prepared the citizens for the change in the mode of 
carrying the public business on ; and the second set 
an example for all who were to follow, of devotion 
to duty, of high aims, of determination to perform 
what was necessary, even at the risk of life and pop- 
ularity, and his work as a public officer has never 
been surpassed. Still Boston was a rural city ; her 
citizens pastured their cows upon their Common 
until after the time of Mayor Quincy, for they were 
not excluded from its precincts until 1828, and most 
of the streets were unpaved. 

Boston has developed greatly in every direction 
since the time of Mayor Quincy, but there is scarcely 
a tendency that may not be traced to that period, 
or further back. It is notable that the early mayors 
laid much stress upon the need of popular educa- 
tion, and that the great progress that has since been 
made in that direction may be traced to early times. 
Still it must be recollected that, much as the early 

438 



MA Y GI/?LS GO TO SCHOOL? 439 

Bostonian esteemed education, he had for a long 
time no conception of free, unsectarian public schools 
and higher institutions of learning as they are known 
now. 

The education provided by the town was for 
boys only ; it was intended only to fit them for Har- 
vard College, through which they were to enter upon 
the only career open to the learned, that of the min- 
istry in the Congregational Church, and it was strictly 
a religious and a sectarian education. According to 
the laws of Harvard College, framed by the first 
president and long in vogue, much more attention 
was given to the moral and religious training of the 
students than to the other branches of their educa- 
tion ; and it was specially ordered that " every one 
shall consider the main end of his life and studies to 
know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life " ; 
all very appropriate for the theological seminary that 
it was.* President Increase Mather (in 1698) char- 
acterized the students as forty or fifty children, few 
of them capable of edification by such exercises " 
of Bible exposition as he was obliged to give them. 
President Quincy thought that for the students not 
destined to be ministers, the college exercises must 
have been irksome, if not, in their opinion, unprofit- 
able. 

Mr. Quincy found, when he came into office, that 
girls were permitted to go to school, but that they 
were not allowed to attend more than one half of 
the time. Down to 1789, indeed, girls had never 
been permitted to attend the town schools at all. 

* See Quincy's " History of Harvard University," pp. 190, 515. 



440 THE NEW ORDER ESTABLISHED. 

During his term of office the experiment was tried 
of giving to girls a high-school education, but it was 
abandoned as too costly, and it was thirty years be- 
fore the same opportunity was given to girls again. 
This first girls' high-school had a curriculum occu- 
pying three years, which did not include Greek or 
Latin. There were one hundred and forty-six boys 
in the Latin school, and it was expected that the 
number of girls would be smaller. The committee 
was astonished to find that they had twice as many 
applicants, when they called for them. Mayor Quincy 
opposed the girls' high-school on the ground that it 
was expensive, and that " schools requiring high 
qualifications as the condition of admission are essen- 
tially schools for the benefit comparatively of a very 
few " ; and that " the higher the qualification the 
greater the exclusion " ; a principle which would cut 
down all the high-schools at a blow. Mayor Quincy 
professed to wish to raise the standard of public edu- 
cation " by raising the standard of the common 
schools," apparently not perceiving that the higher 
the standard is carried the smaller the number of 
pupils must be, whatever the plan employed. 

Mayor Quincy said that the " great interest of 
society is identified with her common schools," and 
it has been supposed that in this utterance he embod- 
ied the convictions of the inhabitants of Boston from 
the earliest period. This is not exactly correct, for 
there was no school supported by public funds that 
corresponded to our present common schools for 
more than half a century after the settlement of 
Shawmut. Four years after the landing of Win- 



PROGRESS OF EDUCATION: 44 1 

throp, indeed, a Latin school was set up as a train- 
ing-school for college and the ministry, and for boys 
only. The common English branches were not 
taught, and it did not occur to our ancestors before 
the Revolution that their daughters had any need of 
the education that boys required. 

It was in 1634 that it was determined to have a 
boys' Latin school, and accordingly one was estab- 
lished on a street which still bears its name. It did 
a great work ; but it was the only school of the town 
until 16S4, and at that time the population had in- 
creased to four thousand or more. One Latin school 
and no common school would not be considered 
very ample for a town of that size in our day * ; and 
yet, when we consider the history of the forefathers, 
and remember the trials under which they built up 
their community, we are apt to exclaim in surprise 
at the enterprise that founded so good a school, and 
one which had such vitality as to endure through the 
vicissitudes of centuries, at so early a period. 

In 1 71 3 there were five town schools in Boston, 
and there were no more until after the Revolution, 
though the population had increased to some eigh- 
teen thousand. On the twenty-third day of June, 
1 741, when a count was made, it was found that five 
hundred and thirty-five pupils (all boys, of course) 
were in attendance at the schools. Another count 
was made in 1772, and eight hundred and twenty- 
three boys were found in their places. By 1800 the 

* For comparison we may take the town of Lee, in Berkshire County. 
In 1784 four schools were thought necessary ; and twenty years ago, 
when its population had increased to nearly four thousand, it had 
twelve common and two high-schools. 



442 THE NEW ORDER ESTABLISHED. 

number of schools had increased to seven, and there 
were nine hundred pupils in attendance. It was in 
1789, under the influence of Samuel Adams, that the 
school system was reorganized, and the girls were 
permitted, for the first time, to pick up the few 
crumbs that they could in the warmer months, from 
April to October. Up to this time there was but one 
text-book, Dilworth's Spelling-Book, and the Bible 
furnished all the reading necessary ; in fact, even 
the requirements of the day — reading, writing, 
grammar, and ciphering — were thought by many to 
be excessive. It seems a ridiculously small curricu- 
lum to our eyes, accustomed to the long lists of 
'ologies, which our youth are taught to apply them- 
selves to. 

It is impossible here to trace the history of public 
education in Boston through its later and more rapid 
stages. It was broadened by adding schools for 
children from four to seven years of age, in 18 18, 
and by bringing in women to teach. Up to that 
time it was not known that women were " equal to 
men as teachers, and superior to them in training the 
tastes and manners of their pupils." * Under the 
influence of Horace Mann, normal schools were 
founded for the training of women who wanted to 
teach, and this led to the revival in 1855 of the girls' 
high-school, and in 1877 to the establishment of the 
girls' Latin school. The latter movement was at- 
tended by a great public excitement. The women 
of Boston awoke to a sense of their disabilities, ow- 
ing to the long exclusion from the Latin school, and 
* Winsor's " Memorial History," vol. iv., p. 246. 



WOMEN GO TO COLLEGE. 443 

there was an excited discussion in the newspapers 
and in the halls of legislature. It was found that 
though the statutes had always declared that " all " 
children should be taught in public schools, that 
" youth " were to be instructed, and that instruction 
in Latin and Greek was to be for the " benefit of all 
the inhabitants," the laws were always construed to 
refer to boys only. It is curious to note that when 
the Latin school was established in 1635, it was for 
the " teaching and nurturing of children," and that 
the law knew no " children " but boys for a century 
and a half and more. 

At about the same time, an arrangement had been 
made at Cambridge by which women might take the 
examinations for admission to Harvard College, and 
enter upon courses of study under the professors of 
the college similar to those conducted for the young 
men, though not under the direct auspices of the 
college corporation, and there were other opportuni- 
ties for their classical instruction, for Boston Uni- 
versity accepted them as students on the same 
footing as that on which men were admitted to its 
classes. Great progress has been made in the in- 
struction of women since the days of Horace Mann, 
and his influence still continues. 

Meantime the education of boys was vastly im- 
proved. An English high-school was established 
in 1 82 1, just as the town was developing into the 
city, because it was found that there were young 
men who wished to " complete a good English educa- 
tion," though they did not intend to go to college. 
In 1868, elementary evening schools were begun, in 



444 THE NEW ORDER ESTABLISHED. 

which newsboys, bootblacks, and others were taught, 
and the following year there was an evening high- 
school, for those who could not attend day-schools. 
There followed schools for deaf-mutes, evening in- 
dustrial schools, kindergartens, etc. Among the 
latest buildings for schools, Boston boasts the lar- 
gest structure in the world used for a free public 
school. It is the High and Latin School, built at an 
expense of three quarters of a million dollars, and 
dedicated to its beneficent uses in i88i. 

The school system has reached vast proportions, 
especially since great additions to the territory of 
the city have been made by annexation. The out- 
lays amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars 
yearly ; the teachers form a small army of educated 
men and women. These are all trained for their 
work. It is no longer the custom, as once it was, to 
make sure that the candidate possessed sufficient 
book learning, and then trust to Providence for his 
ability to convey his knowledge to his young charge. 
Boston, as well as Massachusetts, has her normal 
school, in which the technical skill is obtained by 
candidates, and the entire establishment works like a 
great machine, into which the raw boy or girl is put 
at the age of five, and turned out at the proper time 
from the English High, or the Latin school, fit for 
business or college. Doubtless the machine is one 
that does not always accomplish perfect work ; but 
it is watched over by a committee of men and wo- 
men with hearts, who wish to fit the instruction to 
the wants of the ever varying throng that is before 
them. In the beginning, the teacher of the Latin 



THE LOWELL LNSTLTUTE. 445 

school did his work without much interference that 
history takes account of, and evidently did it well. 
In time, when the number of schools grew, the 
selectmen took upon them the duty of watching 
and directing the schools. They were not chosen 
because they knew what schools should be, and it 
was a change for the better, in 1792, when the town 
chose twelve good men to attend to this particular 
work, for it is to be presumed that the twelve were 
selected with a view to the work they had to do; 
Their number was increased first to twenty-four, 
then to seventy-four, and afterwards to one hundred 
and sixteen, until it became apparent that unity of 
action could not be attained by so great a " com- 
mittee," and, in 1876, the legislature reduced the 
number to the mayor and twenty-four others. A 
superintendent had been provided for in 185 1, and 
he was continued ; but a board of supervisors with 
salaries was added, to be appointed by the commit- 
tee. Methods and schemes for use by teachers will 
improve still further, doubtless, but the present sys- 
tem of supervision by a small committee, with tech- 
nical experts employed under them, will probably 
continue the plan under which the schools will be 
carried on. The course in the primary schools is 
three years ; that of the grammar school, six years ; 
of the high-school, three ; but provision is made for 
advanced instruction. Boys and girls attend the 
same schools in the first years, but the tendency is, 
to separate them above the primary grade. 

In the year 1839 there was established, under pro- 
visions in the will of John Lowell (son of Francis C. 



446 THE NEW ORDER ESTABLISHED. 

Lowell, for whom the city of Lowell received its 
name), one of the characteristic educational institu- 
tions of Boston. One half of Mr. Lowell's property, 
amounting to more than a quarter of a million dol- 
lars, was set aside for the purpose of providing free 
lectures for the general public, and free instruction 
in drawing for mechanics and artisans, and every 
year since valuable courses of lectures have been 
given by specialists of the highest renown, while 
many have been instructed in drawing in the school. 
It would demand a volume to give, even in out- 
line, an account of the religious life of Boston in the 
last century, and the subject must be passed with 
but a reference. There, and in Cambridge, many a 
theological battle has been fought, and many are 
the wounds that time only has been able to heal. 
After the quiet of the generation after the revolu- 
tionary war, there arose a controversy when the 
Rev. Henry Ware, Sr., was chosen to the Hollis 
professorship at Harvard College, in 1808. Then 
there followed, some ten years later, the era when 
Dr. William Ellery Channing, of whom Coleridge 
said that he had " the love of wisdom and the wis- 
dom of love," gained his position as leader of the Uni- 
tarians and the most eloquent preacher among the 
clergy of that body. Avoiding controversy as much 
as possible and endeavoring never to force any one 
to violate the sacredness of conscience, he won to 
_ himself a large following, and gave to the Federal 
Street church a commanding influence. He was 
followed by Everett, and Palfrey and Gannett and 
many others who gave strength and increase to 



VARIOUS CHURCHES. 447 

the same denomination. Meantime the Trinitarian 
Congregationalists, who professed to hold to the 
orthodox theology of the fathers, did not lack stal- 
wart and eloquent as well as learned champions of 
their own, and the names of Griffin and Jenks and 
Adams and Beecher, as well as those of later 
preachers, will never be forgotten. The Episcopal 
Church also grew and strengthened itself ; and other 
religious bodies rose in " the paradise of ministers," 
as Boston was called of old. The mental activity of 
the people was no less apparent in their discussions 
of every form of belief and every doctrine of every 
creed, than it was in the early days when there was 
an established church and all dissent was frowned 
upon and kept, as far as possible, at a distance. 





XXXI. 



CHANGING BOUNDARY LINES. 



When Mr. Quincy declined to be a candidate for 
the office he had so admirably filled, the Hon. 
Harrison Gray Otis was chosen almost unanimously. 
He had long been a public man, and his popularity 
had once been immense, but at the time he had lost 
somewhat of his prestige. He had been active in 
the Hartford Convention, all the members of which 
were looked upon with suspicion, and in his first 
inaugural address he attempted to vindicate himself 
from criticism. 

An era of great commercial progress was opening. 
The Erie Canal had been finished in 1825 ; but 
twenty-two years before that another had been con- 
structed in Massachusetts which established water 
communication with Concord in New Hampshire, 
seventy-five miles. When the great waterway of 
New York was finished, steps were taken in Massa- 
chusetts to see if it were possible to build one from 
Boston to the Connecticut River and thence to some 
point on the Hudson near the junction of the Erie 
Canal. A report was made in favor of a route by 
way of Fitchburg and through a tunnel in the 
Hoosac Mountain, at an estimated cost of some six 

44S 



A RAILWAY TO THE HUD SON. 449 

million dollars. The tunnel alone was expected to 
cost a million dollars.* It is not necessary to say 
that the canal was not built. 

Meantime, news of the proposed railway in Eng- 
land between Manchester and Liverpool f reached 
this country, and interested the builder of the 
Bunker Hill monument, which was begun in 1825. 
He had bought a granite quarry at Quincy, and now 
proposed to construct a railway four miles to tide- 
water to facilitate his work. Great opposition was 
made, of course, but finally a charter was obtained 
and the road built. In October, 1826, a train of cars 
drawn by horses passed over the whole length of the 
road. Horses continued to draw the cars for forty 
years. 

There arose immediately a railroad party in Boston 
and the commonwealth, opposed to the canal party, 
and long were the debates that followed. A com- 
mittee was appointed in the legislature to consider 
the feasibility of constructing a railway to the 
Hudson. The committee made its report in 1827, 
through its chairman, an enthusiast in favor of the 
project, and it encountered the usual fate of schemes 
for progress. It was ridiculed, one very sensible 
editor writing that it was impracticable, the cost 
being "little less than the market value of the whole 
territory of Massachusetts," and of as little use 
when completed as " a railroad from Boston to the 

* The State found that it had expended some thirteen million 
dollars on the tunnel and the tracks necessary for the railway, when, 
many years after this, the work was accomplished. 

f This road was not opened until September 15, 1830 ; but it used 
steam instead of horse-power. 



450 



CHANGING BOUNDARY LINES. 



moon." The agitation was continued, however, and 
finally roads were built to Providence, to Lowell, 
and to Worcester. After that they were extended 
in every direction, and Boston men were not satisfied 
with what they could do in their own State ; they 
contributed capital towards making roads in all 
portions of the country. Under their management 
long lines have been successfully built and operated 

BOSTON AND WORCESTER RAIL ROAD. 




THE Passcnsfcr Cars will continue lo run daily from the 
Dopol near Washington street, to Newton, al 6 and 
10 o'dock, A.M. and al '6\ o'clock, P. M. and 

Ilciuruing, Icnvc Newton at 7 and a quarter pasl 11, A.W. 
and a quarter bclbre 5, P.M. 

Tickets for. tho passagfc cither way may be had at the 
Ticket Office, No. 617, Washington street ; price 37A, ccnis 
each ; and lor ilie return passage, of the Master of the Car 3, 
Newton. 

Bv orde.- of the President and Directors. 

a 29 episif F. A. WILLIAMS. Clerk. 

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE WORCESTER RAILROAD 
FROM THE PAPERS OF TJIE DAY. 



in the South and West, as well as in the North. 
The road towards Worcester was opened as far as 
Newton, May i6, 1834, and on the Fourth of 
July, 1835, it was formally opened to Worcester 
itself. The roads to Providence and Lowell, were 
opened in June, 1835. It was not until 1841 that 
the road to Albany, then known as the Western 



THE SECOND ''CENTENNIAL." 45 I 

Railroad, was opened its entire length. Then it 
was announced that " the magnificent system of 
roads extending from a common centre at Boston " 
and reaching to four adjoining States was nearly 
completed. 

While these great industrial movements were in 
progress, Boston passed her two hundredth birthday, 
and celebrated it with vigor and great ceremony. 
On the morning of the seventeenth of September, 
1830, the city government took possession of the 
apartments that had just been provided for the 
purpose in the Old State House at the head of 
State Street, and after an address by Mayor Otis, 
went in procession under escort of the Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery Company to the Old South 
church, where ex-Mayor Ouincy, then president of 
Harvard College, delivered an oration, and Charles 
Sprague read a poem. The address of Mr. Quincy is 
noteworthy on account of the details which it gives 
concerning the motives of the Fathers in coming to 
the New World. We have already seen that, as Mr. 
Quincy now said, " civil independence was as truly 
their object as religious liberty," but doubtless the 
statement fell upon wondering ears, for it had been 
understood that " religious liberty" was their sole 
purpose in seeking American shores. Mr. Quincy 
rightly traced the desire for independence directly to 
Winthrop and his companions, who " by the magic 
of their daring" transmuted "a private act of incor- 
poration into a civil constitution of a state," though 
from the circumstances of the case they could not 
announce their full purpose at the time. 



452 CHANGING BOUNDARY LINES. 

The impetus given to manufactures during the 
mayoralty of Mr, Quincy is seen in the estabHshment 
of two societies for the encouragement of science 
and the arts. The New England Society for the 
Promotion of Manufactures and the Mechanic Arts 
dates from 1826, and in 1827 the Boston Mechanics' 
Institute was founded, for the promotion of science 
and the useful arts by means of lectures and other 
instrumentalities. 

The interests of the people became more and 
more extensive ; they began to make lithographs, 
chain cables, pianos, ships, ferry-boats, printing- 
presses, locomotives, watches, sewing-machines, boots 
and shoes, organs, seamless bags, and almost every 
other article that nineteenth-century civilization 
requires. They widened out in every direction ; they 
went to Rhode Island and wove woollen goods on 
power-looms ; they built factory towns on the Merri- 
mac, and called them after prominent citizens, 
Lowell and Lawrence, and then they made broad- 
cloths, doeskins, cambric and flannels, calicoes and 
alpacas, paper, and steam-engines, railway cars, and 
carriages, and clothing, employing men and women 
by the thousand. Time would fail us to tell of the 
places to which the Boston men went in their 
enterprise, and the articles that they laid their 
hands to to make. They did not confine them- 
selves to the continent, nor to the hemisphere, but 
went everywhere, impelled by their inherited 
enterprise, and brought home the products of every 
clime and every tribe. 

At the time that the present State House was 



THE NEW STATE HOUSE. 



453 



begun on John Hancock's pasture in 1795, the 
appearance of the promontory was not very different 
from what it was when Blaxton built his small house 
on the southwestern slope of Beacon Hill ; but it was 
destined soon to lose most of the traits that character- 
ized it then. The State House was at first over- 




THE REAR OF THE STATE-HOUSE, AND THE MONUMENT, SHOWING 
THE REMOVAL OF THE HILL (181I-I2). 



topped by the sugar-loaf summit of the hill which 
was crowned by a doric column erected five years 
before, after designs of Charles Bulfinch, on the site 
of the ancient beacon. The base of this monument 
(which was of brick and stucco) rested on the sum- 
mit, which was some seventy feet higher than at 



454 CHANGING BOUNDARY LINES. 

present. The ascent from the north was so steep 
that wooden steps were necessary, but they did not 
reach very far, and the rest of the ascent was made 
by means of footholds worn in the grassy surface. 
We have already seen that this hill was cast into the 
sea to fill up Mill Cove, and add to the territory 
available for building. The other hills followed in 
turn, and last of all Fort Hill was ordered to be 
levelled in 1869, and after three years of digging it 
was no more. 

It was not the levelling of its hills however, which 
made the greatest change in the appearance of 
Boston. The " Back Bay " improvement has given 
the city nearly seven hundred acres of additional 
space for expansion. The cry against the " Back 
Bay Nuisance," to which we have referred,* that 
began to go up in 1849, caused the legislature to 
take possession of the region, and to make arrange- 
ments for reclaiming and purifying it. The late 
Arthur Oilman, one of the architects of Boston, pre- 
pared a plan for laying out and filling in the 
territory, and in 1857 operations were begun in 
earnest. The most elegant homes in the city have 
since been erected on the " made " land, and the 
parks and thoroughfares which have been constructed 
give Boston preeminence above the cities of America 
for beauty and taste. 

The eleventh person to fill the of^ce of mayor was a 
son of the second mayor, Josiah Quincy, Jr. His term 
of ofifice is rendered notable from the fact that he 
was able to furnish to the city that supply of water 

* See pp. 408, 409. 



THE BA CK BA Y REGION. 



455 



which his father had pleaded for in vain. On the 
twenty-fifth of October, 1848, the water from Cochit- 
uate Lake was turned into the Frog Pond on the 
Common, rushing to the height of eighty feet amid 
the triumphant plaudits of the people. An ode by 




THE MONUMENT FRUM TEMPLE AND DEKNE STREETS (181I-12). 



the poet Lowell was written for the occasion. Mr. 
Quincy had some of the traits of his father, and the 
business of his office was conducted with energy and 
success. He was in 1847 authorized to make con- 
tracts for filling in the flats at the south side of the 



456 CHANGING BOUNDARY LINES. 

" Neck," and in consequence the outline of the city 
was considerably changed in that direction, and its 
finances improved by the sales that followed. The 
police force was reorganized and put upon a more 
effective footing, and progress was made in school 
management under the lead of suggestions made by 
Horace Mann and George B. Emerson. 

The following list gives the names of all of the may- 
ors, with the dates at which they took up the duties 
of office : 1822, John Phillips ; 1823, Josiah Quincy ; 
1829, Harrison Gray Otis; 1832, Charles Wells; 
1834, Theodore Lyman, Jr. ; 1836, Samuel T. Arm- 
strong; 1837, Samuel Atkins Eliot ; 1840, Jonathan 
Chapman; 1843, Martin Brimmer; 1845, Thomas 
A. Davis; 1846, Josiah Quincy, Jr. ; 1849, John P- 
Bigelow ; 1852, Benjamin Seaver ; 1854, Jerome V. 
C.Smith; 1856, Alexander H. Rice; 1858, Freder- 
ick W. Lincoln, Jr.; 1861, Joseph M. Wightman ; 
1863, Frederick W. Lincoln; 1867, Otis Norcross ; 
1868, Nathaniel B. Shurtlcff ; 1871, William Gaston ; 
1873, Henry L. Pierce; 1874, Samuel C. Cobb; 
1877, Frederick O. Prince ; 1878, Henry L. Pierce ; 
1879, Frederick.O. Prince ; 1882, Samuel A. Greene ; 
1883, Albert Palmer; 1884, Augustus P. Martin; 
1885, Hugh O'Brieji ; 1889, Thomas N. Hart. 





XXXII. 

INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

" It is a wonderful property of the human mind," 
said Coleridge, the seer, " that when once a momen- 
tum has been given to it in a fresh direction, it pur- 
sues the new path with obstinate perseverance, in 
all conceivable bearings, to its utmost extremes." 
The religion of New England was individual ; " the 
church existed independent of its pastor " ; " each 
one of the brethren possessed equal rights with the 
elders " ; every individual carried in his breast a 
monitor who interpreted for him the will of God, 
and he felt himself a judge of the orthodoxy of his 
companions, as well as of the elders whom he elected 
to be over the church that he united to constitute.* 

Mohammed was wont to assert that the multi- 
plicity of sects in Islam attested its truth. If we 
accept this statement, w^e need go no further to 
prove the truth of the religion of Puritanism and 
Separatism. They contained in themselves the seeds 
of schism. There were always in Boston men and 
women looking for some new light, and ever and 
anon congratulating themselves that they had put 
themselves under its direction. Boston was the 

* See Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. i., chap. x. 
457 



458 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

proper sphere for a woman like Mrs. Hutchinson ; 
Roger WilHams found followers, though he did not 
find enough to enable him to fight with success 
against others who felt that their light was better 
than his. The Separatists established a tendency 
when they left the Church of England ; the Puritans 
followed when they gave up the usages of the old 
country on the soil of a new world. The tendency 
was carried wherever the Puritan and the Separatist 
went, but Boston became the peculiar home of isms 
of every sort. 

The isms that have made themselves most promi- 
nent during the past century in Boston are Transcen- 
dentalism, Abolitionism, and Woman Suffragism. 
It is not needful to enumerate others, for the daily 
newspapers give full notices of the gatherings at 
which their leaders attempt to make disciples and 
to enlighten the world in regard to their peculiari- 
ties. The historian of Transcendentalism says that 
New England " furnished the only plot of ground 
on the planet " where that form of philosophy had 
a chance to show what it was and what it proposed.* 
Of all New England, Boston was the focus about 
which the interests of the new philosophy centred. 

The intellectual revival in New England, which 
marks the beginning of our century, was contempo- 
rary with a forward movement in literature and 
philosophy that began, so far as the beginning of 
such a movement can be marked, at about the acces- 
sion of President Kirkland to the head of Harvard 

* " Transcendentalism in New England," a history, by Octavius 
Brooks Frothingham, p. 104. 



TRANSCENDENTALISM. 459 

College. Though the scholars with which he sur- 
rounded himself gave a strong impulse to the young 
men under their care, they did not begin at that 
early period to study the German writers. It was 
Coleridge who introduced German philosophy to 
England. In 1829 President Marsh, of the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, published the "Aids to Reflection," 
with a masterly essay upon it, which was the first 
fully elaborated estimate of the philosophical opin- 
ions of the English seer. At an early period Ralph 
Waldo Emerson took an interest in the speculations 
of Coleridge, whom he declared to be " a citizen of 
the universe," who took a post at the centre and 
sent sovereign glances to the circumference of things. 
He was, Emerson thought, " one more human soul 
bursting the narrow boundaries of antique specula- 
tion, and mad to know the secrets of the unknown 
world on whose brink it is sure it is standing." It 
was not long after this, in 1832, that Mr. Emerson 
found it necessary to resign his position as a Uni- 
tarian preacher, in which he followed the example of 
Coleridge, though he did not, like Coleridge, enter 
the Episcopal Church. 

The influence of Transcendentalism is apparent in 
George Ripley, Mr. Olcott, Miss Margaret Fuller, 
and Theodore Parker, each of whom had an indi- 
vidual character. All of these, like many a writer 
of less note, were filled with the same " enthusiasm 
of humanity," and longed to exert an influence for 
good in the world, but not through the channels 
that had been usual for such efforts. They became 
the radicals, the " come-outers," the ardent laborers 



460 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

for liberty, for freedom, for the abolition of slavery, 
for humanity everywhere and in every manner. 
" Earnest men and women no doubt they were ; 
better educated men and women did not live in 
America ; they were well born, well nurtured, well 
endowed." So speaks the historian of the move- 
ment, and he adds : " Their philosophy may be un- 
sound, but it produced noble characters and humane 
ives. '• 

To trace the history of the men and women who 
felt the influence of this movement in Boston would 
be to give an account of the contemporaries of 
Emerson who became eminent in philosophy, in 
politics, in letters, with but few exceptions. It 
would be necessary, also, to describe the movement 
that is recognized by the name of its habitation at 
" Brook Farm." The men and women who, in 1841, 
went to that rural retreat, f and tried, by leaving a 
world of institutions, and returning to first principles, 
to reconstruct the social order under the inspiration 
and direction of Mr. and Mrs. George Ripley, fully 
expected " to promote the great purpose of human 
culture," to " apply the principle of justice and love 
to the social organization in accordance with the 
laws of Divine Providence," to " substitute a system 
of brotherly cooperation for one of selfish competi- 
tion," and to secure the rights of the individual. 
They had no doubt that they had laid a foundation 
for a social structure that would approach more 

* Frothingham's " Transcendentalism," p. 383. 
f It was on the borders of Newton and Dedham, within the jiresent 
limits of the city of Boston. 



ABOLU TIONISM. 46 1 

nearly the ideal than any that had ever existed. 
They felt certain that they were " men of common- 
sense," holding in their hands the means of escape 
from the evils of society, then suffering from the 
effects of " civilization," as well as " from the more 
frightful state to which in all countries it is hurry- 
ing." The first stage of the experiment, though it 
was not looked upon as an " experiment," so fully 
were its votaries convinced of its success, was en- 
thusiastic ; the second systematic ; but success did 
not attend it, and after a few years it dissolved, the 
last to leave being Mr. Ripley, who made honorable 
and self-denying arrangements to cancel all obliga- 
tions to the rest of the world, and then entered upon 
his notable career as a critic in New York. 

The members of the Brook Farm association 
found that whether it was necessary to get them- 
selves out of the world in order to set it right, or was 
not, it was impracticable to carry on a reform at 
that period of history in that particular way. They 
had not given themselves very much to the next ism 
to be mentioned. The friends of abolitionism called 
in vain for a positive utterance from them in favor of 
the cause to which William Lloyd Garrison had be- 
gun to devote his energies in 1829. They asserted that 
they stood upon broader ground ; it was the ground 
of the Golden Rule, which would do away with 
every form of slavery and wrong. On the first of 
January, 1831, Mr. Garrison issued the first number 
of his journal, TJie Liberator, and from that time 
until emancipation was declared he gave his thoughts 
unreservedly to the abolition of slavery. He was an 



462 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

"obscure individual " at first, and seemed destined 
to have little success, but he kept at his work un- 
daunted by threats and indignities, and lived to see 
the reform that he had labored for a reality. He 
sent his paper to the South, and the Mayor of 
Baltimore wrote to Mayor Otis, asking him to sus- 
pend its publication. Mr, Otis replied that his 
ofBcers "had ferreted out the paper and its editor; 
whose of^ce was an obscure hole ; his only visible 
auxiliary a negro boy ; his supporters a few ignorant 
persons of all colors." This was a pretty true de- 
scription of Mr. Garrison's editorial office. One of 
his life-long friends afterwards said that it bore 
"an aspect of slovenly decay." He describes "the 
dingy walls, the small windows, bespattered with 
printer's-ink ; the press standing in one corner, the 
composing-stands opposite ; the long editorial and 
mailing table covered with newspapers ; the bed of 
the editor and publisher on the floor." Such was the 
place from which the paper went out in support of 
this ism. 

Mr. Garrison was not accustomed to prophesy 
smooth things, though personally he was one of the 
calmest, the kindliest and most courteous of gentle- 
men. He was inspired by a single thought. He 
asked, " Is slavery right or wrong?" and satisfied 
himself that it was wrong. He then fell back upon 
the belief that it was the particular wrong that he was 
to fight, and that, being wrong, no cornpromise was 
possible. Immediate emancipation, leaving the re- 
sults to Providence, was his conviction, and upon it 
he acted with visfor. He said : " I zvill be heard ! " 




//'//: 



v///h 






A MOB OF WELL-DRESSED GENTLEMEN. 463 

Before the year 1831 closed, on the thirteenth of 
November, a meeting was held in the ofifice of 
Samuel E. Sewall,* a descendant of the judge who 
wrote " The Selling of Joseph," for the purpose of 
forming an Anti-Slavery Society. Other meetings 
were held, the society was formed, and the move- 
ment which had begun in " an obscure hole " was 
taken up by some of the most promising men and 
women of Boston. It was something tangible, and 
swept many into it who could not be touched by the 
deep generalizations of transcendentalism ; it touched 
a subject that every man was able to appreciate. 

Still, everybody in Boston did not sympathize 
with Garrison at this time or at any other. In 1835, 
indeed, a meeting of wealthy and intelligent citizens 
was held in Faneuil Hall to protest against any 
interference with slavery, and to condemn the meth- 
ods of the Abolitionists ; and finally, in October of 
that year, a great stir was raised by a statement that 
George Thompson, an active English Abolitionist, 
had declared that "every slaveholder ought to have 
his throat cut." In the midst of this excitement a 
meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society 
was held in the building in which The Liberator was 
printed, and a mob of " well-dressed gentlemen " 
determined that Mr. Thompson, who was falsely 
announced to address the gathering, should be pun- 
ished. When it was found that Mr. Thompson was 
not present, the mob clamored for Mr. Garrison, and 
dragged him through the streets until he was res- 
cued by the officers of the law and placed in jail for 
* Mr. Sewall died in December, 1888. 




S Q; U T H 
^BOSTON 



«*• or »oo„x ,c«Tos ,„o« ,,„ , ,„,^ ^, ,„ ,,T.T.>r -««>^--' " 



464 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

security. The outrage brought Mr. Garrison into 
greater prominence. The inhabitants generally were 
not sorry that the meeting had been broken up. 
Mr. Garrison himself was made even more fixed 
than before in his firm determination. Other citi- 
zens rose and took his part, and the cause that he 
had at heart progressed. 

Boston was now thoroughly aroused. Edward 
Everett, who was then governor, took up the sub- 
ject, and in his message to the legislature in Janu- 
ary, 1836, expressed the opinion that the good of 
the slave and the stability of the Union were endan- 
gered by the anti-slavery movement. The legis- 
latures of slave States had desired that it might be 
made a penal offence to speak or write against slavery 
anywhere in the Union, and Mr. Everett thought that 
the Abolitionists were committing misdemeanors by 
such efforts as they made, for they tended to excite 
the slaves to insurrection. There was a legislative 
" hearing," and a report was made against the 
Abolitionists ; but it was laid on the table and never 
acted upon. It was on the occasion of this hearing 
that the Rev. Wm. Ellery Channing, the eloquent 
and renowned pastor of the Federal Street church, 
took pains to show his warm sympathy with the 
opponents of slavery. Congress took the matter up, 
and the discussion passed far beyond the limits of 
Boston. 

In 1837, after the killing of Mr. Lovejoy at Alton, 
there was an exciting meeting in Faneuil Hall, at 
which one person placed the "murderers of Alton 
side by side with Otis and Hancock and Quincy 



WENDELL PHLLLLPS AROUSED. 465 

and Adams." This stirred the young heart of Wen- 
dell Phillips, who rose and made his first speech, 
which gave him rank among the orators of the land. 
There was over-excitement on both sides ; the 
church was denounced as a " brotherhood of thieves," 
the constitution of the United States was cursed as 
a "covenant with death," and in 1844 Garrison 
and those who followed him declared for " No union 
with slaveholders," thus taking up the cry of seces- 
sion, which had been a favorite with the dissatisfied 
whenever union became irksome. Parties were 
formed in national politics: the " Liberty Party," in 
1839; the "Free-Soil Party," in 1848; and finally, 
in 1856, the "Republican Party," said to have been 
proposed the previous year by William H. Seward, 
of New York. In 1848, Charles Sumner took his 
place among the Free-Soilers. 

Like Theodore Parker, John G. Palfrey, and John 
Albion Andrew, the "war governor" of Massachu- 
setts, Mr. Sumner did not agree with Garrison in 
opposition to the Union and the constitution, and 
the event shows that his calmer judgment was cor- 
rect.* Mr. Sumner was a native of Boston, born 
January 6, 181 1, and had shown his anti-slavery 
principles before this time, though he was not 
a member of the Abolition society. 

There were constant meetings ; the papers were 

filled with incendiary articles ; fugitive slaves were 

* Mr. Palfrey, who was a member of Congress when Robert C. 
Winthrop, of^oston, was Speaker of the House, said in one of his 
speeches : " If the slaveholders insist that the Union and slavery can- 
not live together, they may be taken at their own word ; but it is the 
Union that must stand ! " 



466 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

brought upon the platforms and into the churches 
to tell their thrilling tales of suffering and escape ; 
and, as in earlier days Samuel -Adams sought 
to keep the citizens up to the point of indig- 
nation necessary for carrying out his scheme of 
revolution, so now Mr, Garrison left no means 
unemployed that would help bring them to the 
position that he had taken of antagonism to what 
he considered a national wrong and a deep disgrace. 
In 1854 the Fugitive-Slave act was denounced at 
a convention of members of the Free-Soil party in 
Boston ; and at about the same time " The Massa- 
chusetts Emigrant Aid Association " was chartered 
with a nominal capital of five million dollars, to 
send free-State emigrants to the territories, and 
especially to Kansas. This association gave way to 
another and more practicable one, which under the 
guidance and with the support of the late Amos A. 
Lawrence and his associates began to send out men, 
August 17, 1854. Other parties followed, singing 
the words of Mr. Whittier: 

"We cross the prairie, as of old 
The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 
To make the West, as they the East, 
The homestead of the free." 

The history of the Kansas struggle belongs to 
other pages ; it brought to Boston at one time and 
another all the men who were interested in that 
region. Hither John Brown, of Ossawattomie, for- 
merly a Massachusetts wool-dealer, came to get sup- 
port and comfort, though his method of making Kan- 
sas free, by exterminating slavery " with gun, pike, 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 467 

and sword," was quite opposite to the peaceful mode 
of the company that Mr. Lawrence directed. Boston 
never became a convert to all of the views of the 
Abolitionists, but it never ceased to respect Mr. 
Garrison, their leader, for his personal character, and 
it honored him for the manner of his public life in 
seeking peace and good-will after his great fight 
was accomplished. A colossal statue in bronze was 
erected to his memory in the " court end " of the city. 

Woman suffragism is the only other ism that we 
can touch. The women of Boston have since 1854 
been moving with some vigor to obtain political 
rights. We have seen that in the matter of educa- 
tion they had been almost utterly neglected during 
the earlier periods. In spite of this fact they man- 
aged to show considerable literary ability and mental 
strength, if not power of the highest kind. They have 
after long effort succeeded in obtaining the right of 
suffrage so far as it relates to education, and at the 
latest election, that of December, 1888, they exer- 
cised a great influence. The occasion was one that 
called forth all of their feelings. A certain text- 
book in history had been dropped from those in use 
in the schools, and a teacher transferred from one 
post to another, through the too great influence, as 
was said, of the Catholic clergy. Women by the 
thousand qualified themselves to vote, and the day 
was carried for the Protestant candidates. 

The campaign that preceded this election was 
characterized by much of the violent oratory that 
had been heard when slavery had been the object of 
attack. It recalled the excitement of 1834, when it 
was averred that the UrsuHne Convent, which stood 



468 INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHER ISMS. 

in the present limits of Somerville, was injurious to 
the best interests of the community, and when the 
story went abroad that a convert from Protestantism 
had been obliged to fly from the institution, and 
that one of the Sisters had also gone for refuge to 
the house of a Protestant neighbor. The worst 
stories about the convent were believed, and a 
Boston mob surrounded the building, and "vindi- 
cated republican institutions " by battering down 
the doors, breaking the windows, and leaving the 
edifice in much the condition in which the house of 
Governor Hutchinson had been left by the indignant 
patriots who in his day thought that breaking and 
burning were the only methods by which American 
principles were to be sustained. The rioting in 
Somerville was cool, and, until the men became in- 
flamed by strong drink, unattended by violence. It 
was properly condemned in Faneuil Hall by Harri- 
son Gray Otis, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and other citizens 
of the same high character. Still, it left a blot on 
the fame of the city. 

The Woniaiis Journal, which was established at 
about 1870, has been the channel through which it 
was hoped to direct legislation and public opinion 
in favor of woman suffrage and all the civil rights 
that women claim, and it has exerted much influence. 
In 1874 it was established that women might become 
members of the school committee, and in 1879 their 
right to vote for school officers was confirmed. The 
New England Woman's Club is another means of 
concentrating action and of bringing their thoughts 
to a focus on every subject upon which women think 
it desirable to make their influence felt. 



XXXIII. 

MODERN BOSTON. 

The rough promontory to which John Winthrop 
was invited by the hospitable Blaxton has become 
the site of a modern city ; its hills have been taken 
down ; its borders have been gradually advanced 
into the surrounding sea ; its crooked lanes have be- 
come streets and avenues ; its territory has been 
covered with palaces of brick and stone. The busi- 
ness men of the present time store their goods in 
warehouses of grand proportions, and meet their 
associates in ofifices of such elegance that, could the 
citizens of an earlier day reappear, they would not 
recognize their former haunts ; and if they could be 
convinced that they were actually in the limits of 
what they once knew as Boston, they would be 
certain that the place had entered upon a career of 
extravagance which could end only in speedy ruin. 
Gradually a new Boston has been evolved from the 
old. The children have grown rich, and the city is 
now perhaps the most wealthy in the land in propor- 
tion to its population. While Boston has changed 
in its external appearance and increased in material 
wealth, it still draws men to it, in a greater degree 
than most other American cities, by virtue of its 

469 



470 MODERN BOSTON. 

excellent schools and libraries, and by the general 
intelligence of its citizens. These are inherited 
traits, and they are strong. 

The territorial growth of the city is a noteworthy 
feature in its later history. Three years are re- 
membered for the annexation of adjoining territory. 
In 1868 Roxbury, which as a town was as old as 
Boston itself, and as a city dated from 1846, became 
a portion of the city. In 1870 Dorchester, which 
had retained its town organization from 1630, was 
also absorbed. In 1874 Charlestown, West Roxbury, 
and Brighton were added, and the enlarged city 
reached its present extent — twenty-three thousand 
seven hundred acres. Chelsea, Cambridge, and 
Brookline still retain their independent existence, 
though they are as much parts of the suburbs as 
those sections that have been merged in the corpora- 
tion. Brighton, indeed, can scarcely be reached from 
the city proper except by crossing some portion not 
included in the city limits, or going by water. The 
" Neck," which was originally hardly broad enough 
to permit the building of the only street which 
crossed it, has been expanded to a width of more 
than a mile and a half ; and upon the land thus 
taken from the sea some of the handsomest and 
costliest of the public and private edifices of the 
city have been built, including the Art Museum, 
Trinity Church, the " New " Old South Church, the 
building erected for the " Manifesto Church," now 
owned by the First Baptist Society, and, finally, the 
High and Latin School building, and the new home 
of the Public Library. 



^. ^ 







472 MODERN BOSTON. 

In hastily glancing over the Boston of to-day we 
are attracted by the great growth shown in church 
buildings, the vast proportions assumed by the 
organizations for charity and social enjoyment ; the 
increase of libraries, the creation of a literature, and 
the development of the business of publishing books, 
newspapers, and magazines ; the improvement in 
architecture, the adornment of the streets and 
squares, the cultivated taste shown in music, the 
drama, and in the fine arts ; and the growth of manu- 
factures and commerce. From the first Latin 
School and Harvard College a vast system of edu- 
cational influences has grown. Colleges and schools, 
public and private, are many, in which both women 
and men may obtain the most complete education 
known to Americans in the different branches of 
human knowledge. It seems, indeed, as though 
every line of thought had been followed to its ut- 
most extent in the effort to make complete the 
development of the faculties, the preservation of 
mental and physical health, the relief of distress, the 
protection of the weak and forlorn, the recovery of 
physical and moral health when lost, and the en- 
largement of opportunities for study and enjoyment. 

The men and women of Boston to-day are not 
confined in their interests, as their fathers and 
mothers were, to the discussion of politics and re- 
ligion, but can cany their thoughts into the realms 
of space and into worlds of which no one dreamed 
a century ago. The result is modern civilization. 
The men know more, they enjoy more, they are 
broader and larger, but they suffer more also. With 



JOHN ALBION ANDREW. 4yT, 

the extension of the faculties in one direction comes 
growth in every other direction. There are, how- 
ever, no happier homes in Boston to-day than there 
were when John Winthrop expressed in formal 
speech his attachment for his Margaret ; when Mrs. 
John Adams wrote her delightful epistles to her ab- 
sent lord ; when young ladies were less distinguished 
for the charms of their minds than for the elegance 
of their persons. With the growth of good taste 
has come a greater sensibility to suffering from those 
things that offend propriety ; with the increase of 
wealth has come an increased list of wants to be sup- 
plied ; every convenience of modern civilization has 
brought with it new cares and new classes of trials. 

The memory of the present generation emphasizes 
certain epochs especially, which are indeed worthy 
of note. From 1861 to 1865 the hearts of all citizens 
were stirred by the uprising of the nation and the 
bloody struggle that settled the government firmly 
upon its present basis. Then the war governor of 
Massachusetts, John Albion Andrew, came forth, 
and placed the state in the fore-front of the move- 
ment for the support of the Federal Government, 
and carried out determined plans with vigor like that 
displayed by the Father of the American Revolution. 
The men of Boston supported the governor and the 
president, and went with alacrity to danger and to 
death at their call. 

When, in 1876, the " Centennial " period of the 
nation arrived, Boston sympathized to the full with 
all who rejoiced, and there was a revival of ancient 
memories as each notable date passed. The impetus 



474 MODERN BOSTON. 

to patriotism has not yet ceased to be felt, and it is 
remembered that we are now in the midst of a series 
of centennial anniversaries of the stirring times when 
the constitution of the United States was ratified by 
Massachusetts, by the convention that adjourned 
from the Old State House and held its memorable 
and protracted sessions in the meeting-house on 
Long Lane, afterwards called Federal Street. 

" The 'vention did in Boston meet, 
But State House could not hold 'em ; 

So then they went to Federal Street, 
And there the truth was told 'em." 

The revival of historical study is shown by the 
repeated courses of lectures on American topics in 
the venerable building of the Old South church, and 
by the establishment of societies for the special pur- 
pose of keeping the memories of the Fathers fresh. 
The first of these in order of time was the Anti- 
quarian Club, organized in 1879 for the purpose of 
preserving historical records. The Boston Memorial 
Association was next formed, in 1880, for the pur- 
pose of caring for the memorials of the city, for the 
preservation and improvement of its public grounds, 
and the erection of works of art. The Bostonian 
Society, incorporated at the close of the year 1881, 
has for its object not the erection of memorials, but 
the preservation of them from reckless destruction 
by those champions of progress who would make 
new every thing old if it happened not to bear upon 
it the marks of the fashion of the day. Into this 
society the Antiquarian Club was merged. 



HISTORY AND LETTERS 475 

The same purposes, to a certain extent, are sub- 
served by the Massachusetts Historical Society. It 
was founded in 1791, and incorporated in 1794, for 
the " collecting, preserving, and communicating the 
antiquities of America," " especially in the historical 
way," as Jeremy Belknap, its founder, wrote. Eight 
of its ten original members were Bostonians, as each 
of its seven presidents have been. The New Eng- 
land Historic-Genealogical Society, which dates from 
the autumn of 1844, also gave impetus to the inves- 
tigation of early American history in the Eastern 
States, and became a centre of antiquarian study. 

Reference has been made to the increase of libra- 
ries. Boston has long been specially rich in both 
public and private collections of books, and at the 
present time affords the student in all branches of 
history, but especially American history, unequalled 
opportunities for the study of originals. A catalogue 
of these collections would be so long as to be tedi- 
ous, but a few of them must be mentioned. The 
library of the University at Cambridge, which under 
its hospitable management is a boon to all students, 
needs but a passing mention. The great Boston 
collection in the Public Library, which bears on its 
outer walls the legend, " FREE TO ALL," now 
numbers more than half a million volumes, and is as 
free as its motto promises. This collection was be- 
gun in 1848, in consequence of an offer of money 
made by the younger Mayor Quincy. Prominent 
citizens at once took an earnest interest in making 
the collection of books worthy of their city ; they 
gave it money in generous sums ; they hastened to 



476 MODERN BOSTON. 

put on its shelves the books that had been left to 
them from their fathers, and made provision in their 
wills that their own books should follow. In this 
way it is no wonder that the favorite library grew in 
numbers. Edward Everett laid down his valuable 
collection of public documents for the public good ; 
Joshua Bates sent from London fifty thousand dol- 
lars ; George Ticknor, historian of Spanish literature, 
gave his time, his money, and finally his unrivalled 
collection of books in Spanish and Portuguese ; the 
deacons of the Old South Church deposited within 
its walls the curious and valuable collection made by 
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Prince, which had long been 
precariously preserved in the ancient lofts in the 
steeple of the old meeting-house. Eleven thousand 
volumes were received by bequest of the Rev. Theo- 
dore Parker. The best collection of Shakespearian 
works known in America came from the library of 
Thomas Pennant Barton, of New York, which was 
bought in 1873, and comprised twelve thousand vol- 
umes. The result is the largest collection of books 
for free circulation in the world. 

The library of the Boston Athenaeum grew out of 
a literary club called into being by the Rev. William 
Emerson, father of the more distinguished son, when 
he took editorial charge of the Monthly Antliology, 
six months after its inception. This was the chief 
literary enterprise of his life, and the magazine was 
the longest-lived of those that followed the Ameri- 
can Magazine, which began its fitful career in 1740- 
The notable collection of men of literary tastes that 
Mr. Emerson grouped around him was known as the 



478 MODERN BOSTON. 

Anthology Club. Once a week they met to discuss 
letters, with especial reference to their magazine, and 
a dinner of modest character, with reference to their 
own social life. The club kept its magazine up for 
some six years, and also formed a collection of books, 
to which were added some that Mr. Emerson had 
gotten together when he had taught at Harvard, 
though he wrote in his journal of himself and his 
wife at the time: "We are poor and cold, and have 
little meal, and little wood, and little meat, but, 
thank God, courage enough." From the collection 
thus formed grew the Athenaeum Library, one of the 
best in the land, which occupies a prominent building 
on Beacon Street, and has been in the care of a 
number of the most noted librarians of America. 

No inconsiderable part of the gradual improve- 
ment in the appearance of Boston has been made 
possible by the fires which have destroyed buildings 
that in the ordinary process of events would have 
cumbered the ground many years longer than they 
were permitted to. There have been, as in many 
other towns, " great " fires from time to time, and 
each one has startled the inhabitants into new and 
more rigid provisions against a recurrence of the like 
disaster. The series began with the fire of 1653. 
After it householders were directed to provide them- 
selves with ladders of sufficient length to reach 
to the ridge-poles of their dwellings, and long 
poles with swabs on the end adapted to " quench 
fire," and six long ladders were hung on the outside 
of the meeting-house. By 1670 these simple means 
had proved inadequate, and householders were or- 



THE GREAT FIRES. 479 

dered to provide at or near the doors of their build- 
ings, hogsheads of water ready filled, with the heads 
out, and to keep their chimneys well swept. The 
vision of a hogshead standing at each door through- 
out the city is an amusing one ! 

The second great fire, which occurred in 1676, 
began " an hour before day," and burned forty-six 
dwellings, besides other buildings, and Increase 
Mather's church, the " Old North." It led directly 
to straightening the streets, and all persons were 
enjoined against building upon the burnt district 
until the selectmen had staked out the streets anew 
and given permission. Those who recollect the 
district burned at the time can but wonder how the 
streets could have ever been more crooked than 
they were even within the second half of the present 
century. The year 1679 witnessed another and 
even more disastrous conflagration, which began 
near the Dock, and, as Cotton Mather says, burned 
fourscore dwellings and seventy warehouses. The 
fire of 171 1 is described as more "sweeping and dis- 
astrous " than any of its predecessors. It burned 
the First Church, the Town House, all the buildings 
on both sides of Cornhill (present Washington Street) 
from School Street to Dock Square, and turned a 
hundred or more families into the streets, besides 
resulting in the death of several men who were 
engaged in efforts to arrest the conflagration. In 
Bonner's map this is called the eighth great fire. 
Another occurred in 1760, and others in 1787, 1793, 
1824, 1825, and 1835 * ; but all of these were eclipsed 

* See Winsor's " Memorial History," vol., iv., page 48. 



480 MODERN BOSTON. 

in greatness and destructiveness by the one which 
fortunately remains tJie great fire of Boston. 

It was not remarkable that in the provincial period 
the town was frequently visited by fire. Indeed 
Cotton Mather said that " never was any town under 
the cope of heaven more liable to be laid in ashes," 
and that " such a combustible heajD of contiguous 
houses " continued to stand he considered a " stand- 
ing miracle." It was Saturday evening, November 
9, 1872 that the greatest Boston fire began. It did 
not attack such a combustible heap "of contiguous 
houses as Cotton Mather was familiar with, but 
began and worked its rapid way through buildings 
built of solid brick and granite that had been sup- 
posed to be proof against such ravages. Beginning 
on Saturday evening at the corner of Summer and 
Kingston streets, the fire Avas not stopped until 
Sunday afternoon, when it had burned over sixty- 
five of the densest acres of the city, and had 
destroyed seventy-five million dollars' worth of 
property, including many public buildings, and most 
of the newspaper offices. It left the view unob- 
structed from Washington Street at the ends of 
Winter, Bromfield, and Milk streets quite out to the 
islands in the harbor. Insurance companies were 
made bankrupt, private citizens and corporations 
found themselves crippled by their sudden losses, 
and the people were for a time almost in a state of 
panic. Common-sense took the place of these feel- 
ings, however. 

Expressions of sympathy came from all quarters. 
Even as the flames were burning, Henry Ward 




THE PL'liLJ 
This is all on " 



THE STORY STOPS. 48 1 

Beecher, son of one of the former pastors of the 
church on Bowdoin Street, speaking from his Brook- 
lyn pulpit exclaimed : " Upon no other place could a 
calamity have fallen which would have touched so 
universally the national life and the national feeling 
as upon the city of Boston — this city from which 
sprung the earliest American ideas. Her history 
is written in the best things that have befallen this 
land, and shame on the man who in the day of her 
disaster has no tears for her!" The city was glad 
of the good feeling, but it accepted no other help 
in the process of recuperation. The streets were 
straightened and widened ; new squares were laid 
out; new water-pipes were laid; and the whole dis- 
trict that had been devastated was rebuilt in much 
finer style than before. 

The one hundredth anniversary of the founding of 
Boston occurred September 17, 1730, and the two 
hundredth was celebrated in 1830. Fifty years later, 
in 1880, there was another hearty celebration, marked 
by one of the greatest processions that had ever been 
known. There was likewise an address intended to 
arouse local pride, as on the former occasions, in the 
Old South Church. This time the orator took for 
his theme the character and services of the first 
governor, who was the first citizen of the town at 
its beginning. The day was appropriately marked 
also by the unveiling of a statue of Mr. Winthrop, 
which stands in the very middle of the rush of 
modern life, in Scollay Square. It is clothed in the 
striking garments of the period, and brings back to 
our eyes the governor as he landed from his ship. 




THE PUBLIC GARDEN AND THE fiUlLDlNGS AkOUND IT IN THE " BACK-HAY " KKCilON. 
This is all on " made " land, — the sidewalk in the foreground markinp; the extreme limit of the original shore 



482 MODERN BOSTON. 

One hand bears to the New World the king's charter, 
and the other the Bible, both of which were held 
sacred by Winthrop and honored by all true sons of 
Boston in the early days. The vessel that brought 
over the precious freight is suggested by a rope 
attached to a forest tree that bears fresh marks of 
the settler's axe. 

Thus the Story of Boston may stop with this new 
reference to the man who guided its first steps, 
whose memory can never fade from the city's records. 
The city's growth in elegance and perhaps in public 
and private magnificence may be dated from the late 
period of the last great fire and of the erection of 
this statue of Winthrop. The streets and squares 
are adorned by many monuments, and with other 
statues, commemorating heroes from Aristides to 
Lincoln, and events from the " Massacre " to the 
uprising of the people in 1775, and the establishment 
of the Nation in 1865. 





INDEX. 



Abolitionism and its energetic 
prophet, 461 

Acadians, the carrying away of the, 
252 

Acadie, relations with the French 
in, 99 

Adams family, the, origin of, 222 

Adams, John, appointed delegate 
to Congress, 358 ; asks a question 
about tea, 362 ; bravely appears 
for Preston, 317 ; brought into 
prominence, 262 ; commends an 
oration by Hancock, 349 ; in- 
veighs against luxury, 393 ; on 
the American congress, 355 ; 
points out the excellences and 
defects of Bostonians, 385, 386 ; 
presents his sentiments about in- 
dependency, 383 ; recommends a 
celebration, 384 ; removes from 
Boston to Braintree, 325 ; thinks 
Britain would enslave America, 
284 ; to his wife after the pas- 
sage of the port bill, 351 

Adams, Mrs. John, on the battle 
of Bunker Hill, 367 ; on the 
behavior of the French officers, 
394, 395 ; on changes in society, 
3S7 ; on the favor of Heaven to 
Boston, 380 ; on the situation of 
the British, 376 ; sermon at mar- 
riage of, 206 

Adams, John Quincy, tells Jeffer- 



son that the embargo cannot be 
enforced in New England, 415 

Adams, Nehemiah, pastor of the 
Essex Street Church, 447 

Adams. Samuel, Sr., member of 
the Caucus Club, 221 

Adams, Samuel, not adapted to the 
times after independence had 
been won, 402 ; appointed dele- 
gate to congress, 358 ; argues 
with Hutchinson, 313 ; asks to 
have the galleries cleared, 335 ; 
called Master of the Puppets, 306; 
brings young men forward, 262 ; 
death of, 405 ; defends the com- 
mittee of correspondence, 347 ; 
gives the populace a cue, 314 ; 
denies the right of parliament to 
tax America, 27S ; expresses the 
thanks of America to the French, 
395 ; the "famous," 393 ; fears 
the Society of the Cincinnati, 
405 ; graduates, 235 ; character 
of, 235 ; habits of, 393 ; has 
great influence as clerk of the 
legislature, 292 ; influence of, in 
education, 442 ; invites some 
British troops to front seats, 359 ; 
keeps up the pre-revolutionary 
indignation, 276 ; labors of, 295 ; 
leaves college and prepares to 
practise law, 256 ; makes a mem- 
orable address at Cambridge, 
236 ; opposed to toryism, 390 ; 
plan of, for committees of corre- 



483 



484 



INDEX. 



spondence, 279, 326, 327, 334 ; 
publishes an "Appeal to the 
World," 308 ; puts Hutchinson 
in the wrong, 331, 332 ; retires 
from public life, 404 ; secretary 
of state, 390; sends out a circu- 
lar-letter, 350 ; the skill of, 290, 
291 ; warns Boston on the com- 
ing of a British fleet, 324 ; writes 
an address for Hancock, 349 ; 
writes voluminously for the press, 
263 

Adams and Hancock excepted from 
a proclamation by Gage, 365 ; 
outlaws, 383 

Advertiser, Independent, the, begins 
a career, 264 

Albany Convention of 1754, the, 
243. 250 

Alexandria, meeting of royal gov- 
ernors at, in 1755, 250 

America, strange views regarding, 

12 

America. History of, by Winsor, 2 
American empire, an, figured by 

some before the Revolution, 261 
American Magazine, the, 476 
Americans, misrepresented at court, 

307 ; said to be poor but proud, 

150 ; spirits of the, to be broken 

at all hazards, 321 
Amphictyons, the, set up as models, 

332 
Amusements renounced on account 

of the presence of troops, 301 
Anabaptists, fears of the, 78, 105 ; 

simply Baptists. 105 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery 

Company, the, 88, 240 
Andrew, John Albion, governor, 

465 ; vigor of, 473 
Andros, Sir Edmund, becomes 

governor, 164 ; arrested and sent 

to England, 170 
Anniversaries, importance of, in 

the estimation of Adams, 293 ; 

influence of celebrations of, 294, 

319 
Antagonism lietween ]5ostonians 
and officers of the king, 261 



Anthology Club, the, 478 
Anthology, J\lonthly, the, edited by 

William Emerson, 476 
Antinomianism, controversy about. 

Antiquarian Club, the, 474 
Anti-Slavery Society, the, founded, 

463 
Apthorp, Rev. East, comes to 

Cambridge, 273 
Arbella, the ship, named in honor 

of Mrs. Johnson, 32 
Aristides, monument of, 483 
Aristocracy, a sort of established, 

in Boston, 84 
Arms, the appeal to, advocated 

under certain circumstances, 265 
Armstrong, Samuel T., mayor, 456 
Artillery Company, the Ancient 

and Honorable, 88, 240 
Assistants, the first court of, 42 
Athem^um, the Boston, how be- 
gun, 476 
Attucks, Crispus, death of, 312 
Aulnay, d', wishes to trade with 

Boston, 99 
Austin, Anne, and Mary Fisher 

arrive from the Barbadoes, and 

are sent away, no 



B 



Back Bay, improvements in the, 
planned by Arthur Oilman, and 
carried out, 455 
Back-Bay region, process of im- 
proving, 412 
Ball, the Peace, in 181 5, dress of 

an attendant at, 417 
Balls frowned upon by Adams, 392 
Bancroft, George, on the transfer 
of the charter, 9; History, quoted, 
301, 457 
Banishment, a punishment for un- 
invited settlers, 63 ; of Roger 
Williams, 77 
Bank, a jirivate, proposed, 208 
Baptism, infant, troulile about, 104 
Baptist Society, the First, in Bos- 
ton, no 



INDEX. 



485 



Barbadoes, contest about a salary 
at, 226 ; trade with, 97 

Barre calls the Bobtonians Sons of 
Liberty, 291 

Barton collection of books, 476 

Bates, Joshua, gives money to the 
Public Library, 476 

Bay Psalm Book, the, iiS ; speci- 
mens of the verses in, 109 

Beacon Hill, the (Sentry) digging 
away of, 412, 454 ; in early days, 
58 ; the steepness of, 454 

Beecher, Henry Ward, on the 
character of Boston, 4S2 

Beecher, Lyman, pastor of the 
church on Bovvdoin Street, 447 

Belcher, Jonathan, becomes gover- 
nor, 228 ; disaffection with, 230 

Belknap, Jeremy, founds the Mass- 
achusetts Historical Society, 475 

Bellomont, Earl of (Richard 
Coote), 1 89; begins his rule, 
196 

Bernard, Governor Francis, de- 
nounced, 294 ; called to account 
for unwarranted expenditure, 
271 ; called to London, 303 ; 
character of, 304 ; fears to ask 
for troops, 298 

Bernard and Hutchinson, influence 
of, 325 

Bible, the, furnishes the model for 
the Bostonian government, 84 ; 
influence of the, on England, 
16 ; to be kissed by witnesses, 
167 ; the mode of reading it, 
180 ; quoted to support a Boston 
notion, 190 ; the source of early 
Boston laws, 119 

Bible-reading in churches, iiS 

Bigelow, John P., mayor, 456 

Bilboes, as a punishment, 63, 64 

Bill, the, sent up by Judge Sewall 
in the Old South, 187 

Bishop's palace, the, in Cambridge, 
occupied by Burgoyne, 389 

Blackstone. See Blaxton. 

Bladen, Martin, charges that Bos- 
ton Seeks inde[)endency, 209 

Blaxton, the first settler at Boston, 



38 ; invites Winthrop to Shaw- 

mut, 42 
Blessing of tlic Bay, the, launched, 

52 
" Blockade of Boston," a play 

composed to enliven the British 

during the siege, 372 
Blood, the first, spilled, 309 
Boards, price of, fixed, 69 
Board of Trade, the development 

of, 209 ; invites a meeting of 

colonists, 250 
" Body of Liberties," the, pre- 
pared by Ward, 121 
Bomazeen, imprisonment of, 189 
Book, the first, printed in Boston, 

"9 

Books and printing, 118 

Boston accused of aiming at the 
sovereignty of the continent, 
328 ; acts as though she were 
independent, 151 ; alarmed by a 
rumor of the return of the Brit- 
ish, 388 ; alarmed by rumors of 
Lidian war, 146 ; alarmed by 
the French Acadians, 100 ; 
alarmed when the charter was 
called for, 122 ; area of, 56 ; 
area of, enlarged, 412 ; aspect 
of, \\\ 1631, 56, 60, 61 ; beauty 
of, 454 ; becomes a place gov- 
erned by a few, 420 ; bound 
hand and foot, 167 ; carefully 
watched by England, 273 ; cele- 
brates its coming two hundred 
years of age, 451 ; celebrates its 
250th anniversary, 482 ; censures 
the governor for accepting a sal- 
ary from the king, 326 ; changes 
in, after the Revolution, 397 ; the 
chief seat of opposition, 307 ; 
church, the, errors in, 79 ; com- 
plained of by the Board of 
Trade, 209 ; condition of, dur- 
ing the siege, 368, 369 ; condi- 
tion of, after the siege, 380 ; in 
cons,tant strife with the king's 
governors, 191, 192 ; denounces 
the stamp act, 285 ; destitute 
of the choice spirits that once it 



486 



INDEX. 



knew, 3S7 ; determined to resist 
taxation, 308 ; determines to 
assert its rights, 297 ; divisions 
of, in early times, 397 ; early 
government of, 83 ; in tlie early 
times, 126 ; engages in the trade 
with China, 415; evacuated by 
General Howe, 375 ; excellences 
of. 3S5, 386 ; excited by the 
arrival of tea ships, 337 ; excites 
Hutchinson's jealousy, 321 ; ex- 
pects liberty to be snatched 
away, 292 ; the first settlers 
around, 38 ; government of, 418 ; 
great influence of, in the public 
discussions, 290 ; hears of the 
declaration of independence, 
384; holds an "adjourned" 
town-meeting, 354 ; holds a 
town-meeting about the port 
bill, 351 ; holds power through 
its town-meetings, 92 ; import- 
ance of, in the early period, 376, 
378; independency of, makes an 
impression in England, 143 ; in- 
dependent in the days of Crom- 
well, 138 ; influence of, among 
the towns, 91, 332 ; influence of, 
throughout the colonies, 249 ; 
invested by war ships, 299 ; the 
jealousy on the part of other 
towns disappears, 290 ; just be- 
fore the Revolution, as drawn by 
Hutchinson, 323, 325 ; laughed 
at by New York, 32S , living in, 
in early days, 145 ; looks toward 
the great West, 406 ; loses pop- 
ulation during the Revolution, 
397. 398 ; made the naval ren- 
dezvous, 322 ; meetings of the 
selectmen cease, 363 ; merchants 
support the legislature against 
Burnet, 226 ; named, 42, 44 ; 
objects to the presence of troops, 
302 ; opposed to giving up the 
charter, \ 54 ; opposed to govern- 
ors appointed liy the king, 190 ; 
opposed to the War of 1812, 416 ; 
cnigin of the name, 44 ; Parlia- 
ment thinks it ouirht tn be de- 



stroyed, 345 ; a period in its 
existence, 376 ; people, not a 
rabble, 363 ; port of, closed, 
346 ; postpones giving up the 
charter, 124 ; prepares to defend 
itself against the king, 123, 
141 ; progress of, 172 ; customs 
of, 172; changes in, 173; "creep- 
ing statesmen" in, 172; tricks 
not to be shown in, 174 ; Sunday 
in, 175, 176; matrimonyin, 178; 
holy days in, 17S ; preaching in, 
180 ; first marriage in the Town 
House, 182 ; dwellings and 
mode of living in, 184 ; inhabi- 
tants of, 185 ; prosperous, 125 ; 
"prostrates" itself before 
Charles H., and keeps on forti- 
fying itself, 141, 142 ; a purely 
English town, 426 ; receives a 
charter as a city, 422 ; rejoices 
at the removal of Bernard, 304 ; 
relative size of, in early days, 87 ; 
remarkable changes in its physi- 
cal appearance, 469 ; reported 
bombardment of, 357 ; restless 
under Hutchinson, 327 ; sends 
letters to the other towns, 327 ; 
settles the financial policy of the 
province, 208 ; siege of, begun, 
361, 364 ; seventeen miles from 
a seaport, 353 ; social changes 
in, 390 ; supports the Union 
cause in the last war, 473 ; terri- 
fied at the appointment of Kirke, 
I5*J. 157 ; threatened by a fleet, 
324 ; trade growing up in, 97 ; 
trade interfered with by the 
parliament, 193 ; troubled by 
Indians, 92 ; troubled by Quak- 
ers, no; widening of the inter- 
ests of, 472 ; wishes to become 
a city, 419 

Boston Mill Corporation, scheme 
of 412 

Boston Public Library, the, 475 

Boston and Roxbury .Mill Cor|)o- 
ration, scheme of, 410 

P.oston and Worcester Railroad, 
450 



INDEX. 



487 



Bostoneers, name given the in- 
habitants of Boston by Ran- 
dolph, ig8 

Bostonian Society, the, object of, 474 

Bostonians, called " Sons of Lib- 
erty," 291 ; defects of, as seen by 
John Adams, 385, 386; grow 
rich in the carrying trade, 414 ; 
mainly whigs, 262 ; think rapidly 
and to purpose, 286 ; uneasy in 
the days of Pownall, 259 

Bounties offered for scalps, 201 

Bowdoin, Governor, dwelling of 
occupied by Burgoyne, 370 ; 
gives a sentiment, 384 

Bowen, Francis, " Life of Otis," 
by, 296 

Bow-wows, the three, arrive, 363 

Boyle, Robert, President of the 
Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel, 136 

Boylston, Thomas, disciplined by 
sundry " females," 388 

Bracket's tavern, known as Crom- 
well's Head, 408 

Bradish's tavern, now Porter's 
Hotel, 389 

Bradstreet, Simon, at the head of 
Boston affairs, 169, 170 

Brattle Street church, beginning 
of, 199 

Brawls in the streets in 1768, 301, 
310, 3" 

Breck, Samuel, dwelling of, occu- 
pied by Earl Percy, 370 

Breed's Hill, battle on, 366. See 
Bunker's Hill 

Bridge to Charlestown, building of 
a, 408 

Bridge, the Craigie, to Cambridge, 
built, 409 ; the Harvard, build- 
ing of, 409 

Bridges, effect of the, when lighted, 
409, 410 

Brighton, annexation of, 470 

Brimmer, Martin, mayor, 456 

Briscoe, Nathaniel, brutally beaten, 
107 

British authority ended in Boston, 
385 



Brook Farm movement, the, plan 
of, 460 

Browne, John and Samuel, sent to 
England, 64 

Brown, John, comes to Boston, 
466 

Buckminster, Rev. Joseph Stevens, 
pastor of the Brattle Street 
church, 200 

Buildings, new, on the made land, 
470 

Bulfinch, Charles, designs a monu- 
ment to commemorate the Bea- 
con, 453 

Bullivant, Doctor, makes a repartee 
to Bellomont, 197 

Bunch of Grapes tavern, bonfire in 
front of; 385 ; important meet- 
ing in, 406 ; reception of Gov- 
ernor Burnet at, 225 

Bunker Hill, battle on, 366, 367 

Burgoyne, General, arrives in Bos- 
ton the first time, 363 ; surrender 

of, 389 

Burnet, William, becomes gov- 
ernor, 223 ; death of, 227 

Burying-place, the first, 43 

Business, stagnation of, in 1814, 
416 

Byles, Mather, minister of the 
Hollis Street church, salutes 
Governor Burnet, 224 ; describes 
a Harvard commencement, 237 



Cambridge, Eng., important meet- 
ing at, I, 9 

Cambridge. See New Town. 

Cambridge, an army at, the day 
after Lexington, 364 ; legislature 
adjourns to, in 1769, 302 ; ad- 
journment of the court to, 227 ; 
ferry to, 131 ; meetings of the 
provincial congress at, 358, 360 ; 
receives its name, 107; reception 
of Washington in, in 1789, 402 

Cambridge platform, departed 
from, 199 

Canals, beginnings of, 448 



488 



INDEX. 



Canso, garrison at, surprised, 244 
Capital offences in America and 

England, 121 
Carpets not known in early Bos- 
ton, 400 
Carrying trade, prosperity of the, 

414 
Catholics, fear of the, 102 
Caucus Clul), the, 221 
Caulker's Club, the, 223. 235 
Celebrations, anniversaries, etc. , 

influence of, 2g4 
" Centennial," the first, in Boston, 

231 

Centennial period, the, 473, 474 

Chandelier, the word attracts the 
attention of Gen. Putnam, 374 

Channing, William E., influence 
of, 446 ; shows his sympathy with 
the opponents of slavery, 464 

Chapman, Jonathan, mayor, 456 

Charles I. grants a charter to set- 
tlers in New England, 3 

Charles II. not " proclaimed " in 
Boston, 139 

Charlestown, annexation of, 470 ; 
bridge to, built, 408 

Charlton becomes the capital, 41 

Charter, the Massachusetts, pro- 
posal to take it to America. 5 ; 
transfer of the, discussed, 6 ; the, 
demanded by the king, 122 ; 
differing views of the nature of, 
ig3 ; the ' explanatory " (1725), 
213 ; rights under the, 6 ; rights 
under the, proclaimed, 140; 
struggle for it between the king 
and the colonists, 151, 153, etc. 

Charters, abrogation of the, advo- 
cated, 209 

Chauncy, Charles, reads the Dec- 
laration of Independence in his 
pulpit, 385 ; on the union of the 
colonies, 355 

Christ Church (Boston), lanterns 
hung in the steeple of, 361 

Clirist Church, Cambridge, 273 

Church, Benjamin, brought for- 
ward, 263 ; delivers an oration 
commemorating the massacre. 



332 ; a vi'riter on the side of 
England, 325 

Church green, site of the New 
vSouth meeting-house, 221 

Church of England, feelings of 
Winthrop towards, 30 ; the, sus- 
pected, 273 

Church, the Episcopal, begins to 
thrive, 162 

Church, the, of New England, 
character of, according to Hub- 
bard, 78 

Church music, 117 

Church services m the early days, 
iSo 

Cincinnati, Society of the, fears 
about, 405 

Cisterns provided for use in case 
of fire, 431 

Citizen, an indignant, writes to 
the Advertiser^ 410 

City, movements toward a, 420- 

423 . , 
Clergy, limits to the influence of, 

72 ; a new, sought by Randolph, 

181 
Club, the Anthology, 478 
Club, a whig, advocates the rights 

of the peo))le, in 1747, 264 
Clymer, George, on liberty, 337 
Cobb, Samuel C, mayor, 456 
Cobbler, the Simple, of Agawam, 

mentioned, 26 ; on fashions, 13S 
Cochituate Lake, water obtained 

from. 435, 455 
Codfish and cranberries sent to the 

king, 144 
Coinage of money complained of 

by Randolph, 153 
Coleridge, S. T., influence of, 459 
Colman, Benjamin, first ])astor of 

the Manifesto Church, 199, 200 ; 

"lashes" the Mathers, 202 
Colonization of America, I 
Colonists, invited to Ireland, 125 ; 

some leave Boston, 98 
Column, the, on Beacon Hill, 453 ; 
Come-Couters, the, 459 
Commencement at Harvard, as 

described by Byles, 237, 238 



INDEX. 



489 



Commerce, depressed by war debts, 
400 ; prosperity of, 449; suf- 
fered during the Revolution, 

39S. . 

Commissioners from the king, ex- 
pected to take the government 
fnjm the people, 140, 141 ; ar- 
rive, but effect nothing, 142 

Commissions, roving, of the king's 
governors, 191 

(iimmon, the Boston, owed to the 
influence of Winthrop, 73 ; cows 
pastured on, 43S ; the water that 
once washed its shores, 410 

Concert Hall, situation of, 394 

Concord, "battle" at, 361 ; pro- 
vincial Congress formed at, 357 

Confederation, the New England, 
of 1643, origin of, 93 

Congregational Church, the, 447 

Congress, of the colonies called, 
351 ; a continental, wished by 
Samuel Adams, 337 ; the con- 
tinental, delegates to, 35S ; the 
first of the colonies, 249 ; meets 
at Philadelphia. 383 ; a pro- 
vincial, favored by the "county 
meeting," 356 ; the provincial, 
organized at Concord, 357 ; the 
stamp act. 280 

Conscience, liberty of, 77, 106 ; 
freedom of. to be extended to 
users of the prayer-book, 139 ; 
should be free, thought Salton- 
stall, 65 

Conscientiousness in early times, 
219 

Constitution, the new, of Massa- 
chusetts, adopted, 391, 403, 404 ; 
debate on the adoption of, 350 

Constitution of the United States, 
ratification of the, 474 

Contraction of marriage, 17S 

Cooper, Rev. .Samuel, pastor of the 
Brattle Street church, 200 

Cooper, Rev. William, pastor of 
the Brattle Street church, 200 

Coote, Richard, Earl of Bellomont, 
189, 196 

Copp's (Windmill) Hill, 58 ; the 



burial-place of the Mathers, 213; 
digging away of, 413 

Corn a legal tender, 98 

Corn-stalks, sugar and molasses to 
be made from, 388, 389 

Correspondence, committees of, 
279 ; meet, 350 ; opposed by 
Hancock, 391 ; plan for, 326, 
^ 327, 334 

Cotting, Uriah, important project 
of, 410 

Cotton. Rev. John, arrives, 70, 
130 ; disapproves of democracy, 
83 ; expected by Winthrop at 
Groton, 28 ; on Roger Williams, 
66, 76 ; overrates his clerical 
power, 72 ; prepares " Moses, his 
Judicials," 119 

Cotton's Hill, a name of Pember- 
ton Hill, 413 

Council for New England, records 
of, edited by Charles Deane, 3 

County meeting, a, held at Ded- 
ham and Milton, 355 

Couriers, a system of, established 
by the county meeting, 356 

Court, the Great and General, 
formed, 5 ; troubled about a 
sow, 8g, 90 ; adjourns to Cam- 
bridge. 210 ; adjourns to Salem, 
226 ; adjourns, hoping for some 
" unhappy accident," 160 ; meets 
at Salem, and appoints dele- 
gates to Congress, 352, 353, 
354 

Courtship in the Winthro]-) family, 
27. 54 

Coves, the, of Boston, 58 

Cows pastured on the Common 
until 1S28, 438 

Cradle of Eiberty, a name of 
Faneuil Plall, 235 

Cradock, Matthew, governor of 
the IVfassachusetts Company, 5 

Crafts, Thomas, reads the Declara- 
tion of Independence in Boston 
the first time, 384 

Credit, bdls of, banish coin, 2C8 

Creeping statesmen infest Boston, 
173 



490 



INDEX. 



Cromwell invites colonists to Ire- 
land and Jamaica, 125 
Cromwell's Head tavern, 408 
Cross in the flag, the, disapproved, 

76, 174 

Curfew bell, the, 114 

Currency, paper, depreciation of, 
22g ; troubles with, 209 

Curwen, Samuel, "Journal" of, 
cjuoted, 397 ; remarks of, about 
changes in society, 387, 396 

Cushing, Thomas, appointed dele- 
gate to Congress, 358 

Customs, early Bostonian, 114 

Cutler, Manasseh, negotiates with 
Congress about western lands, 
408 



D 



Dalrymple, Col., decides to remove 
troops, 316 

Dancing oi)posed in early days, 175 

Dancing-school, an, established, 
176 

Dartmouth, the first tea-ship, ap- 
pears in Boston harbor, 338 

Davis, Thomas A., mayor, 456 

Dawes, William, sent to Lexing- 
ton, 360 

Daye, Stephen, the first printer, 
Ii3 

Deaf-mutes, schools for, 444 

Deane, Charles, communicates to 
the Historical Society about 
John Hull's house, 162 ; edits 
the records of the Council for 
New England, 3 ; on the Coun- 
cil for New England, 2 ; on the 
gift of Boston to Ireland, 150 

Debt, the, of England, increase of, 
277 

Debt, the, public, increased by the 
Louisburg expedition, 247 

Debts incurred during the Revolu- 
tion, 398, 400 

Democracy, a, not intended by the 
founders of New England, 83 ; 
a simjile, the government of 
Boston, 41 8 



Diary, the, of John Winthrop, 
begun, 32 

Dickinson, John, on the American 
Congress, 355 

" Dippers Dipt," the, by Featley, 
7S 

Discourse on Government, by John 
Winthrop, 6 

Display opposed by Samuel Adams, 
390 

Discussion in Boston before the 
Revolution, 274 

Distress, financial, after the wars, 
208 

Dorchester Heights fortified, 366, 
374, 406 

Dorchester Neck annexed and 
called South Boston, 409 

Dress thoroughly studied in early 
Boston, 400 

Drinking too much jnmished, 69 

Druiletes, Gabriel, the Jesuit mis- 
sionary, visits Boston, 103 ; 
says the first mass in Boston, 
103 

Dudley, Joseph, chosen governor 
by Charles II., 159 ; disappoints 
the expectations of Randolph, 
161 ; made governor, 200; de- 
generacy of, 153 ; his demand 
for a salary, how met, 192 ; 
death of, 205 

Dudley, Thomas, one of the first 
settlers in Boston, 20 ; deputy- 
governor, traits of, 66 ; receives 
Druiletes, the Jesuit missionary, 
103 

Dummer, William, governor ad 
interim, 212 

Dunkirkers, dangers from, 35 

Dunster, Henry, becomes presi- 
dent of Harvard College, 108 ; 
finds himself at odds with his 
church about baptism, 109 ; is 
obliged to vacate his office. log 

Duties levied on goods imported 
from England ami the West 
Indies, 211 

Dwellings, in early days, 115 ; fur- 
niture of, 400 



INDEX. 



491 



E 



Eaton, Nathaniel, is made head of 
Harvard College, 107 ; he beats 
his usher brutally, 107 ; feeds 
his scholars poorly, 107 ; is cast 
out, and goes to Virginia, 108 

Education in early Boston, 439, 
441 

Election, methods of, 85 

Election Sermon, the, before the 
artillery company, 241 

Eliot, the Rev. John, apostle to 
the Indians, exchanges civilities 
with Druiletes, 103, 104, 136 

Eliot, Samuel Atkins, mayor, 456 

Ellis, 'Dr. G. E., describes the 
trials of the colonists, . 126 ; on 
the motives of the early emi- 
grants, 31 ; on the transfer of 
the charter, 9 

Embargo, the, effect of, in Boston, 
415, 416 

Emerson, George B., labors to im- 
prove the school system, 456 

Emerson, R. \V., interested in 
Coleridge, 459 

Emerson, William, begins the 
Athenceum, 476 

Emigrant Aid Society, the, found- 
ed, 466 

Emigration, falls off in 1631, 65 ; 
numbers who came over, 95 

Endicott, Governor John, cuts the 
cross out of the flag, 76 ; goes to 
Salem, 2 ; meets Winthrop on 
his arrival at Salem, 37 

Engines, fire, opposition to the use 
of, 432 

England, claims America by virtue 
of Cabot's discovery, i ; decides 
to be "civil and conciliating," 
144 ; endeavors to restrict the 
trade of Boston in 1785, 414 ; 
sees evidence of independence, 
88 ; supposed to need American 
money to pay its debts, 255 

England, Church of, discounte- 
nanced, 153 

English high-school, the, 443 



Episcopal Church, the, growth of 

447 

Episcopalians encouraged by Ran- 
dolph, 161 

Episcopal service held in Boston 
for the first time, 161 

Equality of men, the, supported by 
Otis, 272 

Evelyn, John, on the independency 
of Boston, 143 

Everett, -Edward, at the Federal 
Street church, 446 ; gives his 
books to the Public Library, 
476 ; on slavery, 464 

Exportations, prohibited from Bos- 
ton, 415 ; renewed by British 
merchants, 307 

Extent of the American continent 
as seen by early colonists, 3 

F 

Factory towns increase, 452 

Falmouth, now Portland, Adams 
at, 362 

Familists, the, errors of, 79 

Famine in Boston, 52 

Faneuil Hall, a business men's 
meeting in. in 1785, 414 ; im- 
portant meetings in, 422 ; Love- 
joy meeting in, 464 ; meeting 
against abolitionism, 463 ; meet- 
ing in, to condemn the Ursuline 
Convent riot, 468 ; meeting in, 
to oppose the importation of 
tea, 338 ; meetings in, to protest 
against extravagance, 392 ; occu- 
pied by troops, 300 ; site of, 60. 

Faneuil Hall market, built, 234, 
235 ; inadequate, 433 

Faneuil, Peter, proposes to build a 
market-house, 234 

Fast, the first, 41 

Fasts and thanksgivings, 179 

Father of America, the, 379 

Federalist leaders receive an offer 
from England, 415 

Federalists, the, support the Massa- 
chusetts constitution, 404 

Federal Street Church, convention, 
ill, 474 



492 



INDEX. 



Federal Street, why so named, 404 
Female Anti-Slavery Society, meet- 
ing of, 463 
Ferry, a, established to Charles- 
town, 69 
Feudalism feared on account of the 
formation of the Society of the 
Cincinnati, 405 
Finances, the, of Boston retrieved 
from confusion by Mayor Quincy, 
432 
Financial distress, 20S 
Fines as jnmishments, 6g 
Fire, the great, of 1872, 480 
Fires, confusion at, 431 ; provision 
against, in early times, 431, 478 ; 
reform in management of, 430 ; 
the notable, in Boston, 478 
Fisheries, interest of Samuel Adams 

in, 403 
Flats, contract for filling, 455, 456 
Fleet, a British, comes to Boston, 

324 

Floors uncarpeted in early Boston, 
400 

Flynt, Tutor, opinion of White- 
field, 233 

Fones, Priscilla, matrimonial affair 
of, 26 

Food in early days, 62 

Fort Hill, efforts to fortify, 379 ; 
now cut away, 58 ; levelled, 

, 454 

P'ortunes made during the Revo- 
lution, 400 

Foster, John, the first Boston print- 
er, iig 

Fourth of July, the noisy celebra- 
tion of, owed to John Adams, 
3S4 ; takes the ])lace of other 
anniversaries, 319 

Foxcroft, Rev. Tiiomas, preaches 
a centennial sermon, 231 

France, alliance with, 394 ; a ficti- 
tious war with, provided against, 
299 

Franklin, Benjamin, colonial agent 
in London, 348 ; examined by 
the House of C'ommons, 288 ; 
in favor of jjaying for the tea 



destroyed, 354 ; obtains some 
letters of Hutchinson, 335 

Franklin, James, begins a paper in 
Boston, 211 

Franklins, the, do not reverence 
the Mathers, 212 

Freemen, oath of the, 85 ; must 
belong to churches, 84 ; seek to 
enlarge their share in the govern- 
ment, 85 ; semi-annual meetings 
of, how warned, 418 

Free-Soil Party, the, 465 

French, the, at Acadie, relations 
with, 99, 100 

Frog Pond, water let into, from 
Cochituate Lake, 455 

Frothingham, O. B., quoted, 458, 
460 

Fugitive Slave Act, the, denounced, 
466 

Fuller, Margaret, and Transcen^ 
dentalism, 459 

Funeral, the, of the boy Schneider, 

309 
Funerals, how conducted, 177, 178 : 
of the victims of the massacre, 
316 

G 

Gage, General, arrives in Boston 
as governor, 351 ; character of, 
352 ; collects troops, builds bar- 
racks and fortifications, 356 ; dis- 
solves the general court at Salem, 
354 ; on the Boston peo]ilc. 363 ; 
recalled after the battle of Bunker 
Hill. 371 ; receives a protest 
against the presence of troops, 
302 ; sends troops to Concord, 
360 

Gammell, Prof. William, " Life of 
Roger Williams," 66 

Gannett, Ezra Stiles, in the Fed- 
eral Street church, 446 

Gardiner, Sir Christopher, ban- 
ished, 64 

(Gardiner, S. R., " History of Eng- 
land," (|uoted, 5 ; on the charac- 
ter of Margaret Winthrop, 16 ; 
on independency in Boston, 88 



INDEX. 



493 



Garments of men and women in 
early days, 218 

Garrison monument, the, 467 

Garrison, William Lloyd, and abo- 
litionism, 461 ; dragged through 
the streets, 463 ; likened to Sam- 
uel Adams, 466 ; monument, 467 

Gaston, William, mayor, 456 

Gates, General, in command of the 
army about Boston, 379 

George III. expresses his " unalter- 
able" determination, 372 

Gerniaine, Lord George, on the in- 
fluence of town-meetings, 345 

Gibbons, Mrs. Edward, goes to 
Pullen Point, gg 

Gilman, Arthur, plans improve- 
ments in the Back Bay, 454 

Gilman, Nicholas, makes out a 
" carnal " scheme, 248 

Girls' high-school, the, revived, 442 

Girls' Latin school, the, founded, 
.442 

Girls, opportunities for education, 

439. 440 

Gloves and rings at funerals 227, 
228 

Gold obtained for rum, 3gg 

Gordon, William, on the Caucus 
Club. 221 ; his " American Rev- 
olution," quoted, 277 

Gorges, F., "America Painted to 
the Life," 4 

Gorham,town of, favors liberty, 32g 

Gospel, intention to carry it to the 
Indians, 14 

Gout, the, an old friend of Han- 
cock, 350. 403 

Government, a continental de- 
manded, 381 

Government of Boston, the, 418 ; 
inefficient, 420 ; loose methods 
in. 422 ; suffers a change, 83 

Governments, local, recommended 
by the Continental Congress. 38 1 

Governors, royal, number of, 195 ; 
not successful, 206 ; popular 
feeling, towards, ig7 ; time of 
the, a period of constant strife, 
i8g 



Grace-cup, a, presented to Harvard 
College by William Dummer, 
217 

Grammar schools, course in the, 

445 

Granary burying-ground, the rest- 
ing-place of the victims of the 
massacre, 317 

Gray, Edward, begins rope-mak- 
ing, 310 

Gray, Harrison, grandfather of 
Harrison Gray Otis, 310 ; warns 
a young gentleman against in- 
temperate language, 342 

Great tree, the, at Essex Street, 
281, 287, 291 

Green, J. R., on the condition of 
Puritan England, 16 

Greene, Gardiner, estate of, 413 ; 
mansion of, occupied by Earl 
Percy, 370 

Greene, Samuel A., mayor, 456 

Gridley, Jeremiah, opens the case 
in favor of writs of assistance, 26g 

Griffin, E. D., pastor of the Park 
Street church, 447 

Griffin's wharf, the tea-party at, 342 

Groton, Suffolk, the home of John 
Winthrop, 11 

Groton, sale of the homestead at, 

51 

H 

Hair-cutting, views regarding, 215 
Hair, long, not to be tolerated, 

136 
Hancock, J., appointed delegate 
to Congress, 358 ; arrested, 301 ; 
charged with smuggling, 2g6 ; 
in conflict with Washington, 
402 ; delivers an oration written 
by Adams, 34g, 350 ; dwelling 
of, occupied by Gen. Clinton, 
370 ; entertains the French offi- 
cers, 3g4 ; enters college, 258 ; 
"exposes" letters of Hutchin- 
son, 335 ; gives a great dinner, 
289 ; opposed to the nomination 
of Washington, 391 ; ostentation 
of, 402 -, refuses to order the 



494 



INDEX. 



cadets to support Hutchinson, 

339 

Hancock and Adams, character- 
istics of each, 390; dissensions 
between and reconciliation of, 
3gi ; excepted from a proclama- 
tion by Gage, 365 ; outlaws, 383 

Hangings, public, opposed by 
Quincy, 429 

Hanover Square, an opei\ space 
around the Liberty Tree, 291 

Hart, Thomas N., mayor, 456 

Hartford Convention, the, charac- 
terized, 416 

Harvard Bridge, the, 409 

Harvard College begins in a school, 
106 ; commencement in early 
days, 237, 238 ; criticized by 
Whitefield, 232, 233 ; " danger- 
ous" teachings at. 199; a nur- 
sery of seditious preachers, 182 ; 
ought to be suppressed, 182; 
reorganization of, by Josiah 
Quincy, 437 ; its original {pur- 
pose, 439 ; students assert their 
patriotism, 300 

Harvard examinations for women, 

443 

Harvard, Rev. John, becomes 
benefactor of the college, 107 

Health, Board of, declares the 
Back-Bay region a nuisance, 412 

Health-drinking, disapproved, 51 

Heath, General, called upon to 
lend a book, 373 

Henry, Patrick, draws up the 
Virginia resolves, 278 ; makes 
a celebrated speech against the 
stamp act, 280 ; proposes a 
congress, 280 ; ])rovides for inter- 
colonial corres]iondence, 334 

Higginson, the Rev. Francis, sails 
for America, 4 

High-school, course in the, 445 ; 
a, for girls, in Boston, 440 

High and Latin school building, 
the, 444 

Hills, the, of Boston, 58 

Historic-Genealogic Society, the, 
475 



History, interest in, 474 

Holyoke, President Edward, testi- 
fies against Whitefield, 233 

Homespun goods, 399 ; admired, 
286 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 130 ; 
preaches a long sermon, in 
Cambridge, 117 

Hoosac mountain to be tunnelled, 
448 

Hope, the ship, captured when en- 
tering Boston harbor, 380 

Hosmer, J. K., " Life of Adams," 
quoted. 295, 329. 349 

House of Correction established, 70 

Howe, Estes, settles the site of the 
house of John Hull, 162 

Howe, General, arrives at Boston, 
363 ; on the Battle of Bunker 
Hill, 367 

Howes, the, hatred of, 369 

Hubbard, William, historian, quot- 
ed, 32 ; on the enemies of New 
England, 78 

Hull, John, site of his house, 162 

Humanity, the enthusiasm of, 459 

Humfrey, John, an original settler, 
21 

Hutchinson, Anne, comes to Bos- 
ton, 74 ; character of, 79 ; 
banned, 80 

Hutchinson, Edward, sent against 
Philip. 147 

Hutchinson, Thomas, alarmed by 
the action of Massachusetts 
towns, 330 ; assumes the man- 
agement of affairs. 306 ; charac- 
ter of, and descent of, 265, 266 ; 
characterizes the first committee 
of correspondence, 327 ; his de- 
mand for a salary, how opposed. 
192 ; favors extreme measures, 
308 ; fatuity of, 330 ; favors a 
hard-money currency, 248 ; flees 
from his home, 2S4 ; his " His- 
tory of Massachusetts " quoted, 
4, 266 ; his house mobbed, 2S3 ; 
impotent to support the tax col- 
lectors, 339 ; investigates the 
massacre, 312 ; leaves for Eng- 



INDEX. 



495 



land, 352 ; letters of, theatrically 
exposed, 335 ; made governor, 
322 ; on the means used by 
Samuel Adams, 378 ; on the 
murder of a "poor German," 
310 ; his power gone, 349 ; re- 
call of, demanded, 226 ; on the 
second generation of statesmen 
in Boston, 173 ; surrenders the 
Castle to Major Dalrymple, 322 ; 
on the uneasiness of the people, 

Hydraulion, a, purchased by Mayor 
Quincy, 431 



Importations opposed by Boston, 

351 

Impressment of seamen, 252 ; on 
the Romney, 296 

Independency, the aim at, traced 
to Governor Winthrop, 451 ; 
almost a fact in 1671, 144; an 
avowal of, according to Hutchin- 
son, 334 ; danger of tlie approach 
of, according to Hutchinson, 
330 ; declared, 383, 384 ; desire 
for, the controlling passion from 
the beginning, 275 ; desire for, 
charged to the Bostonians, 209 ; 
disavowed as an intention, 279 ; 
dreaded by the tories, 381 ; evi- 
dences of a feeling of, 8 ; the 
first declaration of, 10 ; the great 
topic before the Congress of 
1776, 383 ; indicated by the 
coinage of money, 139 ; indica- 
tions of, 121, 15T ; jealously 
watched by the king's governors, 
191 ; looking towards, 87 ; a 
move towards, made by Adams, 
237, 239 ; planned by Adams, 
265 ; prophesied by Governor 
Pownall, 261 ; signs of, 95 ; the 
son of Liberty, 2S1 ; supported 
Ijy biblical arguments, 190 

Indians, gives trouble, 145 ; as 
servants, 115 ; shut out of Bos- 
ton, 151 

Indian strife, results of, 196 



Indian war causes anxiety in Bos- 
ton, 258 ; devastates the country, 
201 

Indies, searchers for the, who 
thought to go through the con- 
tinent, 3 

Individualism, the, of the religion 
of Boston, 457 

Industries, the great, of Boston, 398 

Informer, an, tarred and feathered, 
308 

Innovations in government op- 
posed, 421 

Inoculation practised by Dr. Boyl- 
ston, 211 

Intemperance in the olde:i time, 
196 

Ireland sends money to Boston, 150 

Isms, the, of Boston, 458 

J 

James I. grants a charter, 2 

Jamaica Pond furnishes water to 
Boston, 435 

Jefferson, Thomas, influenced by 
Federalist representations, 416 ; 
on Samuel Adams, 378 

Jenks, William, pastor of the Park 
Street church. 447 

Johnson, Arbella, an original set- 
tler, 21 ; dies, 42 

Johnson, Isaac, an original settler, 
21 

"Juice junior" terrifies royalists, 

387 

Joseph, The Selling of, tract by 
Sewall. 218, 463 

Judges, the, to be made indepen- 
dent of the people, 326 

Junketings of the selectmen, 419 

Jury, trial by, to be refused, 277 

K 

Kansas, emigrants sent to, 466 
Keayne, Robert, captain of the 

Ancient and Honorable Artillery 

Company, 240 ; and the widow's 

pig, 88, 89 
Kidd, William, and the Earl of 

Bellomont, 198 



496 



INDEX. 



Kindergartens established, 444 

King, the, ignored in the freeman's 
oath, 87 

King's Chapel built, 166 

Kirke, Col. Piercy, chosen as gov- 
ernor of New England, 156 ; 
characterized by Mather. 158 

Knowles, Commodore Sir Charles, 
impresses seamen, 252 



Lamb abstained from, that there 
might be more sheep and wool, 
285 

" Land Bank" scheme, the, 230 

Land titles disturbed by Randolph 
and vVndros. 167, 169 

Language, peculiar use of, by the 
Mathers, 214 

Latin School, the, purpose of, 441 ; 
boys in the, 440 

La Tour wishes to trade with Bos- 
ton, 99 

Laud, Archbishop, influence of, on 
New England, Si 

Lawrence, Amos A., sends men to 
Kansas, 466 

Laws, the early, 119 

Lawyers, profession of, not ad- 
mired, 206 

Lectures at the Lowell Listitute, 
446 

Lee, Arthur, ojiposes the importa- 
tion of tea, 337, 338 

Lee, Richard Henry, approves in- 
tercolonial cf)rrespondence, 334 ; 
letter of Samuel Adams to, on 
State sovereignty, 403 

Letters of John Adams and his 
wife quoted, 385, 386 (See 
Adams, Mrs. John) 

Letters, the, of llutcliinson, the- | 
atrically exposed, 335 

Letters, virulent, written by the 
Mathers, 201 

Leverett, John, governor, sends 
men against Fhilij), 147 

Lexington, "battle" at, 3f>i 

/.i/wrator, 7'he^ publication of, 461 



Liberties abridged under the king's 

governors, 160 
Liberty, not always distinguished 

from license, 284 ; movement 

towards, 460 ; threatened by a 

fleet, 324 
Liberty Hall an open space, 287, 

291 
Liberty Party, the, formed, 465 
Liberty Tree, the, at Essex Street, 

287 ; cut down by the British 

soldiers, 371 
Library, the Boston Public, 475 
Licenses of tippling-houses taken 

away by Mayor Quincy, 430 
Lincoln, F. W., Jr., mayor, 456 
Lincoln monument, the, 483 
Linn, Henry, whipped and ban- 
ished, 64 
Liverpool wharf. Tea-party at, 342 
Living, cost of , after the Revolution, 

386, 387 ; in Boston in early days, 

115 
Local governments recommended 

l)y the Continental Congress, 381 
London, city of, loses its charter, 

155 ; affected by Boston's re- 
strictions on trade, 415 
Long Lane, name of, changed to 

Federal Street, 405 
Long Pond, now Lake Cochituate, 

used as a water-supply, 435 
Lothrop, Rev. Samuel K., pastor 

of the Brattle Street church, 200 
Loudoun, Lord, commander of the 

royal army, 260 
Louisburg, capture of, 243, 247 ; 

iron cross from, 256 
Lovejoy, killing of, meeting about, 

464 

Lovell, Master Jt)hn, gives Faneuil 
Hall a name, 235, 236; im- 
prisonment of, 369 ; closing of 
the Latin school by, 423 

Lowell Institute founded by John 
Lowell in 1839, 446 

Lowell, John, establishes the 
Lowell Institute, 445 

Lowell railroad, the, ojiened, 450 

Loyalists lind refuge in Boston, 364 



INDEX. 



497 



Loyalty, defined by the Independent 
Advertiser, 265 ; weakening in 
Boston in 1760, 260 

Luxury, after the RevoUition, 400 ; 
opposition of John Adams to, 393 

Lyman, Theodore, Jr., mayor, 456 



M 



Mall, breezes that once blew over 
the, 410 ; a new, on Charles 
Street, 432 

"Manifesto" Church, the, why so 
named, igg 

Mann, Horace, improvements in 
the school system by, 456 ; in- 
fluence of, in education, 442 

Manufactory House, the, a place 
for the celebration of the mas- 
sacre, 319 

Manufacture, the chief, before the 
Revolution, 398 

Manufactures, grow up in Boston, 
98 ; interfered with by parlia- 
ment, 194 ; the New England 
Society for the promotion of, 452 ; 
and trade, improve, 452 

Market-house, designs for a new 
one, by Mayor Quincy, 432 ; 
building of a, 433 

Markets, three 'built, and de- 
stroyed, 234 

Marriage ceremony, the, in early 
days, 178 

Marriage, the first, in the Town 
House, 182 

Marriages solemnized by a magis- 
trate, 177 

Marsh, President, introduces the 
works of Coleridge, 459 

Martin, Augustus P., mayor, 456 

Masked ball, a, arranged by the 
British, 372 

Mass, the first, in Boston, 103 

Massachusetts becomes the Terri- 
tory of Massachusetts Bay, 371 ; 
the chief industries of, in 1750, 
398 ; colony to be liroken up, 
124 ; forms a local government, 
356, 357> 381 ; gives up to the 



king under protest, 160 ; named 
by John Smith, 2 ; refuses to fur- 
nish troops in 1814, 417 

Massachusetts Company, the, 
formed, 4 

Massachusetts Historical Society, 
the purposes of, 475 

Massacre, the Boston, a street riot, 
276 ; Tiow originated, 311, 312 
313 ; celebrated in 1773, 332 ; 
in 1775, 358, 359 ; monument to 
commemorate, 483 

Master of the Puppets, a name 
given to Adams by Hutcliinson, 
306 

Mather, Cotton, character of, 134, 
135 ; on danger from fire in Bos- 
ton, 480 ; on the death of Arbella 
Johnson, 42 ; favors inoculation, 
211 ; his opinion of Williams, 76; 
pre]iares to be president of Har- 
vard College, 135 ; is disappoint- 
ed, 135 ; proposes to publish a 
tract on slavery, 218 ; on reli- 
gious customs, 177 

Mather dynasty, the, begins, 129 

Mather, Rev. Increase, life of, 
132 ; called a "bellows of sedi- 
tion and treason," 184 ; charac- 
terizes the students at Harvard 
College, 439 ; church of, burned, 
479 ; connected with the perse- 
cution of witches, 186 ; gives an 
opinion of a newspaper, 212 ; 
laments the bad times, 199 ; sent 
to England to plead with the 
king, 168 ; has some success in 
England, 171 ; strong words of, 
on the charter, 154 ; writes the 
first book printed in Boston, lig 

Mather, Increase and Cotton, 
deaths of, 213 

Mather, Richard, arrives, 129 

Mather, Samuel, loses his library 
and the books of Cotton and In- ' 
crease Mather, at the Battle of 
Bunker Hill, 367 

Mather and Willard refuse the use 
of the Old South for Episcopal 
worship, 165 



498 



INDEX. 



Mathers, the, opponents of Dudley, 

20I 

Maverick, Samuel, at Winnisim- 
met, 38 

Mayfloiuer, the ship, carries emi- 
grants to Boston, 32 

Mayhew, Jonathan, denies the 
power of parliament over reli- 
gion, 274; preaches a "notable 
sermon, 283 ; writes about lib- 
erty, 281 

Mayoralty, difficulty about, at the 
organization of the city govern- 
ment, 422 

Mayors, the, of Boston, 438 ; list 
of, 456 

Mechanics' Institute, the Boston, 
452 

Medford, once Mystic, 40 

Meeting-house, the first, 61, 116; 
its second building, lyg 

Meeting, talking in, forbidden, 137 

Memorial Association, the Boston, 

474 
Military companies formed upon 

the i^assage of the port bill, 351 
Militia, the, in early Boston, 241 ; 

training-day for, 69 
Mill Corporation, the Boston and 

Roxbury, scheme of, 410 
Mill Cove and Creek, 58 
Mill Cove, filled up with soil from 

Beacon Hill, 454 ; filling up of 

the, 412 
Mill Creek, filling up of, 412 
Mill-dam, building of the, 410 
Mill Pond, limits of, in early 

days, 59 ; filling up of the, 412, 

Ministers, influence of, 87 ; invited 
to emigrate, 25 

Minot's continuation of Hutchin- 
son's History, quoted, 398 

Minute-men enrolled, 358 

." Model of Christian Charity," a 
work by John Winthrop, 48 

Molasses act, forfeitures under the, 
268 ; tlie, enforced by Paxton, 

254 
Molasses distilled into rum by 



Gage, 369 ; price of. after the 
Revolution, 387 

Money, the coinage of, in Boston, 
139 ; trouble about, 208 

Montreal, fall of, 259 

Morning gun of the Revolution, 
the, 274 

Morton, Thomas, of Wollaston, 
sent to England, 64 ; punished 
for " cheating Indians," 50 

Motto of Boston city, 425 

" Mr." Plastowe, to be called 
Josias, 69 

Mugford, Captain, captures a ves- 
sel with powder, 380 

Minister, excesses at, 78, 105 

Music, instrumental, not relished, 
200 

Mutiny act, the, passed, 280 



N 



Naumkeag, the early name for 

Salem, 2 
Navigation, the act of, interferes 

with commerce, 140 
Neck, change in the width of, 456, 

470 
Negroes, traffic in, disliked by 

Sewall, 218 
New England as seen Ijy John 

Winthrop, 49, 51 
New England, Council for, formed, 

2 
New England people awkward, 

according to John Adams, 386 
New Hampshire, boundary trouble, 

230 ; forms a local government, 

381 
Netvs-Letter, ill success of the, 211 
New South church, the, 222 
Newspapers, origin of, in Boston, 

202 
Newspaper, the third, begun by 

James Franklin, 211 
New Town (Cambridge) fortified, 

69 ; a college to be established 

at, 106 ; once destined to be the 

capital, 67 ; becomes Cambridge, 

107 



INDEX. 



499 



New York becomes larger than 
Boston, 398 ; political princi- 
ples of, 337 

Non-importation agreements, 285 ; 
foretold, 278 

Norcross, Otis, mayor, 456 

Normal schools founded, 442 

North End, the, loses its prece- 
dence, 397 ; outlines of, 397 

North, Lord, thinks the people of 
Boston a " riotous rabble," 346 

North meeting-house, the, pulled 
down for firewood, 370 

Northwestern territory, plan for in- 
fluencing, 406 

Norton, Rev. John, of Boston, 130, 

131 
Norton, Rev. John, of Hingham, 

preaches a " flattering" sermon, 

202 
No\\'ell, John, one of the original 

settlers, 20 



O 



Cakes, Urian, president of Har- 
vard College compliments Cot- 
ton Mather, 134 

O'Brien, Hugh, mayor, 456 

Offal, removal of, under Mayor 
Quincy, 432 

Ofhce a trust, not to be declined, 
242 

Olcott, A. Bronson, and Transcen- 
dentalism, 459 

Old North church, burned, 479 

Old South meeting-house, the, 
after the massacre, 313, 314 ; 
meeting in, to oppose importation 
of tea, 339, 340 ; occupied as a 
riding-school, 370; refused to 
Andros, 165 

Old South lectures on American 
history, 474 

Oliver, Andrew, obliged to resign, 
28 1 ; death of, 349 

Oliver, Peter, chief-justice, charges 
against, 348 

Opinions, effect of, in acts, 173 

Otis, Harrison Gray, candidate for 



mayor, 423 ; chosen mayor, 448 ; 
describes Garrison, 462 ; suggests 
a Hartford convention, 416 
Otis, James, arouses enthusiasm 
among the Harvard students, 
302 ; close of the active life of, 
305 ; graduation of, 258 ; Life of, 
by Francis Bowen, mentioned, 
296 ; moves that the Superior 
Court adjourn to Faneuil Hall, 
" on account of the presence of 
soldiers," 301 ; opens debates to 
the public, 295 ; op])osed to 
Bernard, 270 ; opposes the legal- 
ity of writs of assistance, 269 ; 
prepares a memorial to go to 
England, 279 ; protests against 
troops about the State House, 
302 ; publishes a vindication of 
the house, 272 ; on taxation 
without representation, 276 ; 
traits of, 266 ; comes into con- 
flict with government, 266 ; 
would not deny all parliamentary 
authority, 325 



Paine, Robert Treat, appointed 
delegate to congress, 358 

Painter, one, whipped for not hav- 
ing his children baptized, 105 

Painter, Rev. Henry, courts Pris- 
cilla Fones, 27 

Palaverers, the Two, an inn, 221 

Palfrey, Rev. John G. , pastor of 
the Brattle Street church, 200, 
446 ; does not oppose the Union, 
465 ; his History referred to, 73 

Palinurus, the, of the Revolution, 
378 

Palmer, Albert, mayor, 456 

Panic, a financial, in Boston, 96 

Paper money, refused after the 
Revolution, 387 ; troubles from, 
229 

Parker, Theodore, favors the 
Union, 465 ; gives books to the 
Public Library, 476 ; and Tran- 
scendentalism, 459 



500 



INDEX. 



Parliament, acts of, not to be exe- 
cuted in Boston, 322 

Parliament debates the question of 
taxing America, 288 ; deems its 
power vindicated, 347 ; resolves 
to check the defiant spirit of 
Boston, 345 ; right of, to tax 
America denied, 325 ; suppresses 
a bank by a retroactive decision, 
230 

Parliamentary supremacy argued 
for by Hutchinson, 331 

Parsons, Theophilus, writes an 
address for Hancock, 350 

Parties, in early Boston, 250 ; 
political, formed in abolition 
times, 465 

Party strife lapses in war, 207 

Patent, the, Williams' views re- 
garding, 77 

Patriotism, aroused in Boston, 286; 
bred in the New England towns, 
92 

Pauperism, investigated by Josiah 
Quincy, 429 

Paxton, Charles, surveyor of the 
port, enforces the sugar law, 254 

Pemberton, Rev. Ebenezer, dis- 
turbed, 204 

Pemberton Hill, digging away of, 

413 
Pennsylvania, political principles 

of, 337 

Pepperell, William, takes com- 
mand of the Louisburg expedi- 
tion, 246 

Pepys, Samuel, acknowledges a 
"blessing mighty unexpected," 

144 

Pequod war, the, 92, 93 

Percy, Lord, retreats to Boston, 
365 ; sent with troops to Con- 
cord, 361 

Peter, Hugh, comes to Boston, 74, 
81 

Petersham opposed to salaries for 
the governor from the king, 329 

Philadelphia, congress to be held 
^t. 353 ! t'lc meeting, 355 ; con- 
tributes to alleviate the rigors of 



the port bill, 353 ; rejoices over 
the Boston tea-party, 343 

Philip of Mount Hope gives 
trouble, 145 ; killed, 149 

Philip's war, 206 

Phillips, John, chosen mayor of 
Boston, 424 

Phillips, pastor at Watertown, dis- 
ciplined, 69 

Phillips, Wendell, begins his 
remarkable career, 465 ; points 
out his father's house, 425 

Philosophy, the, of Transcendent- 
alism, 460 

Phips, Sir William, made govern- 
or, 171 ; career of, 187 ; his 
pugilistic traits, 188 

Pierce, Henry L., mayor, 456 

Piracy, efforts to extirpate, 197 ; 
honored in early times, 33 

Plastowe, Josias, fined for stealing 
from Indians, 69 

Police force, reorganization of the, 
456 

Politics, revolution in, after the 
Revolution, 397 

Poor, provision for the, under 
Mayor Quincy, 432 

Population, growth of, retarded, 
206 

Port bill, the Boston, 347, 350, 

354, 364 

Porter's hotel, formerly Bradish's 
tavern, 389 

Pownall, Thomas, appointed gov- 
ernor, 258 ; character of, 260, 
261 ; holds correct views about 
America, 325 

Prayer, a ]iolitical, 202 

Prayer-l)ot)k forms objected to, 64 

Preaching with notes, 180 

Prerogative, the royal, sustained 
by Shute, 2o3 

Prerogative men opposetl to the 
patriots, 250 

Press, importance of, in American 
history, 250 

Preston, Captain Joli". ^"<l I'le 
massacre, 312, 317, 31 8 

I'rimarv schools, course in, 445 



INDEX. 



501 



Prince, Frederick O., mayor, 456 
Prince, Rev. Thomas, preaches a 

centennial sermon, 231 
Prisoners, treatment of, by the 

British, 368 
Privateering, a means of gaining 

riches, 387 
Prophesying in church, iiS 
Providence railroad, the, opened, 

450 
Provincial congress, the, formed at 

Concord, 357 
Provisions in early days, 62 
Psalms, the, no longer read line by 

line in church, 200 
Psalm-singing, in early days, 117 ; 

made libellous, 204 
Public, the, admitted to debates, 

295 

Public Library, the, 475 

Publishment of marriage inten- 
tions, 178 

Punishments in early days, 53, 63 

Puppets, Master of the, a name 
given to Adams, 306 

Purchase Street, home of Adams 
on, 295 ; origin of name of, 310 

Puritan dress, and other matters, 
218 

Puritanism, tendency of, 45S 

Putnam, General Rufus, makes a 
timely call, 373 ; writes to Wash- 
ington in regard to western im- 
migration, 406, 407 

Putnam, Israel, surprises Charles- 
town, 365 

" Puritan Age and Rule," the, re- 
ferred to, 9, 31, 126, 429 

Pynchon, William, an original 
settler, 21 



Q 



Quakers, hanged on the Common, 
112; punishments for, iii ; 
trouble Boston, no 

Quality, persons of, propose to 
emigrate to Boston, 73 

Quarters for troops, dispute regard- 
ing, 300 



I Quebec, fall of, 259 ; sends aid to 

I Boston, 353 

I Queen Street, now Court, 394 
Quincy, three members of the fam- 

I ily named Josiah, 340 
Quincy, Josiah, Jr., bravely appears 
for Preston, 317, 428 ; called the 
Boston " Cicero," 263 ; an- 
nounces the doctrine of seces- 
sion 415 ; asks a question about 
tea and salt water, 340 ; recom- 
mends retaliation, 307 ; Memoir 
of quoted, 325, 345, 428 
Quincy, Josiah, becomes president 
of Harvard College, 437 ; career 
of, before becoming mayor, 428 ; 
chosen mayor, 426 ; on common 
schools, 440 ; correspondence of, 
416 ; delivers a Fourth of July 
oration, 428 ; gives an account of 
the motives of the settlers of 
Boston, 451 ; his History of 
Harvard Univeristy, 439 ; on 
the independency of early Bos- 
tonians, 8 ; influence of, on 
Boston, 438 ; Life of, quoted, 
415 ; method of performing his 
duties as mayor, 429, 430, 436 ; 
Municipal History of, 422 ; 
nominated as mayor, 423 ; retires 
from office, 436 
Quincy, Josiah, eleventh mayor, 

454 
Quincy Market, the, building of, 

433 

Quo tvarranlo, matter of the, 155 



Radcliffe, Rev. Robert, holds 
Episcopal service, 161, 163, 
182 

Radicals, the, 459 

Railways, beginnings of, 449. 

Randolph, Edward, appears in 
Boston, 151 ; makes charges 
against the colonists, 152, 153 ; 
arrested, 169 

Ratcliff, Philip, circulates scandals 
in England, 63 



502 



INDEX. 



Rawson, Edward, secretary, on 
the condition of the colony, 158 

Reformation, a, expected in Eng- 
land, 96 

Regicides, the, escape to Boston, 

139 
Regiments, the "Sam Adams," 

317 

Religion, the, of the founders of 
the colony, 274 

Religious character of Bostonians 
in early days, 177 

Religious life in Boston, 446 

Religious troubles at the Old South, 
166, 167 

Representative government estab- 
lished, 85 

Republican party, the, formed, 

465 
Revere, Paul, carries a message from 
a Boston town-meeting to Phila- 
delphia, 351 ; carries the Suffolk 
resolves to Philadelphia, 356 ; 
illuminates his house, 319 ; in- 
fluences Samuel Adams by means 
of the mechanics, 404 ; sent to 
Concord, 330 ; takes to Phila- 
delphia an account of the tea- 
party, 343 
Revolution, the "causes" of, 275 
Rice, Alexander H., mayor, 456 
Richardson, the informer, who 
caused the death of Schneider, 

309 
Riedesel, (General, in Cambridge, 

389 

Rights of the people advocated by 
a club, 264 

Rings and gloves at funerals, 227, 
228 

Riot, the, on account of the seiz- 
ure of Hancock's vessel, 296 ; 
caused by impressment of sea- 
men, 252, 253 ; at the time of 
the Romney troul)le, 297 ; the, 
at the Ursuline convent, 468 

Rioters dispersed by Mayor (^uin- 

cy, 430 

Ripley, George, and Transcenden- 
talism, 459, 460 



Romer, Col.', William Wolfgang, 
engineer, repairs the Castle, 219 

Roiiiiie)\ impressment of seamen on 
the, 296 

Rope-making in Boston, 310 

Roxbury, annexation of, 470 ; be- 
ginnings of, 40 

Royalists not accorded justice, 173 

Rum, extravagant price of, 387; 
the chief manufacture previous 
to the Revolution, 398 ; not to 
lie sold without a permit from 
Gage, 369 

Ryece, Robert, a friend of Win- 
throp, gives him advice, 17, 18 



Safety, a committee of, appointed, 
in 1770, 316; formed, 358; a 
council for, appointed, 171 

Salaries decreased by the deprecia- 
tion of the currency, 248 

Salaries to be paid by the king, 346 

Salary, Belcher's contest for, 229 ; 
difficulties of Bellomont in re- 
gard to, 198 ; contest of Burnet 
for, 225 ; not given to Dudley, 
201 ; the, of Hutchinson direct 
from the king, 323 ; contest of 
Shirley for, 243 ; troubles of 
Shute regarding, 210 

Salary question, the, as connected 
with the king's governors, 192 

Salem, general court adjourned to, 
226 ; meetings of the general 
court at, 352, 354 ; made the 
capital, 346 

Salem witchcraft, the, 185 

Saltonstall, Sir Richard, character 
of, 20 ; obliged to make restitu- 
tion to Indians, 69 ; protests 
against certain acts of the early 
settlers, 65 

Salutation Inn, and Alley, 221 

Satan, the emissaries of, abroad at 
an early date, 119 ; influence of, 
in New England, 48 ; as a hard 
master of the Indians, 92 ; said to 
have been the instigator of the 



INDEX. 



503 



persecution of the witches, 187 ; 
his kingdom supported by Quak- 
ers, III 

Scalps, bounties offered for, 201 

Schneider, the boy, becomes the 
" first martyr," 309 

School committee, the, how formed, 
445 

Schools, free and unsectarian not 
known in early Boston, 439 ; 
plan formed for the support of, 
in the West, 406 

Schools in the West, 408 

School Street, named for the Latin 
school, 408 

School system, organization of, un- 
der the influence of Samuel Ad- 
ams, 442 

Scrupulosity, the, of Bostonians, 
136 ; in early times, 219 

Secession, first announcement of 
the doctrine of, 415 ; from a 
Southern point of view in 1814, 
416 

Secrecy of the movements of the 
colony company in arranging to 
take the charter to America, 7 

Selectmen, the first appearance of, 
91 ; the, of early Boston, 418 ; 
junketings of the, 419 

Selling of Joseph, the, a tract by 
Judge Sewall, 21S, 463 

Sentry (Beacon) Hill in early days, 

Separatism opposed by Winthrop, 

31, 74 
Sermon, the Election, before the 

Artillery Company, 241 
Sermons in the heroic age, 117 ; 

strange texts for, 205, 206 
Servants in Boston families, 116 
Sever, Benjamin, mayor, 456 
Sewall, Samuel, judge of the court 
that tried witches, 186 ; his re- 
pentance of his deeds, 187 ; com- 
forts himself at the coming of 
Andros, 164 ; comments on the 
change in the times, 162 ; his 
home, 162 ; his Selling of Joseph, 
218 ; converses about the Dud- 



ley letters, 201, 202 ; deals 
with "brother Wing," 174; gives 
a view of the doings of his day, 
214 ; has scruples about the cross 
in the colors, 174 ; his opinion 
of the influence of Increase 
Mather, 215 ; death of, 231 

Sewall, Samuel E., unites in found- 
ing the Anti-Slavery Society, 463 

Shawmut becomes Boston, 43 

Shays' rebellion, the, causes of, 
400, 402 

Shepard Memorial church, men- 
tioned, 309 

Shepard, Rev. Thomas, of Cam- 
bridge, 80 

Sherman, goodwife, and her trouble- 
some sow, 88, 89 

Shirley, Thomas, expresses his 
opinion of Boston, 328 

Shirley, William, appointed gov- 
ernor, 243 ; puts the indepen- 
dency of America in the distance, 
261 

Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., mayor, 
456; his " Description of Bos- 
ton," quoted, 397 

Shute, Samuel, appointed govern- 
or, 208 

Shylock, a lesson from, 195 

Singing by note first introduced, 
200 

Slavery , abolished in Massachusetts, 
405 ; Edward Everett on, 464 ; 
protests against interference with, 
463 ; tract against, by Sewall, 218 

Slaves, cost of and care of, 184; 
obtained for rum, 399 

Small-pox in Boston, 210 

Smith, Jerome V. C, mayor, 456 

Smith, John, on the beauty of Bos- 
ton, 38 ; gives names to places 
in New England, 2 

Smith, Rev. Ralph, becomes a 
Separatist, 32, 74 

Smuggling, seizure of the Liberty 
for, 296 

Smuggling trade, the, 254 

Snow, Dr. Caleb H., History of 
Boston, 202, 355, 409 



504 



INDEX. 



Society, changes in, as marked by 
Samuel Curwen, 387 ; after the 
Revolution, 396 

Soldiers, in the early Boston econo- 
my, 242 ; from Halifax arrive in 
Boston, 300 ; provision for quar- 
tering, upon towns, 346 

Sons of Liberty, an organization, 
2gi 

South Boston, annexed, 409 ; (Dor- 
chester Heights) fortified, 366 

South Carolina, forms a local gov- 
ernment, 381 ; sympathizes with 
suffering Boston, 353 

South End, boundaries of, 397 ; in 
early days, 223 

Sovereigns, Americans first so- 
called, 261 

Sow, the stray, and what it brought 
about, 88, 89 

Speculation after the Revolution, 

387 
Speculators punished as royalists, 

387 
Sprague, Charles, reads a poem, 

451 
Squeb, Captain, at Nantasket, 40 
Stamp-act congress, the, 2S0 ; men- 
tioned, 326 
Stamp-act riot, the, 282 ; cele- 
brated, 294 ; denounced, 284 
Stamp act, the, passed, 280 ; re- 
pealed, 288 
Stamp duties proposed by Sir Wil- 
liam Keith, 224 
Stamps deemed a mark of slavery, 

and not to be used, 381 
Stamp tax, the, proposed, 277 
State Church, the, in Boston, 178 
State House, the present, begun, 

452, 453 

State sovereignty as interpreted by 
Hancock, 402, 403 

Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, of North- 
ampton, 216 

Stone, Rev. Samuel, 130 

Stoughton, \\'illiam, acting gover- 
nor, 1S9 ; governor, rule of, 195, 
198 

Streets, changes in, after the Revo- 



lution, 397 ; condition of, in early 
days, 59 ; improvement in the, 
under Mayor Quincy, 432 ; new, 
built by Mayor Quincy, 434 

Suffolk resolves, how passed, 355, 
356 

Suffrage, the, and church member- 
ship, 84 ; right of, sought by 
women, 467 

Sugar law, the, enforced by Charles 
Paxton, 254 

Sumner, Charles, becomes a Free- 
Soiler, 465 

Sunday customs in Boston, 115 

Sunday, how kept in early days, 

175, 176 
Sunday services given up at the 

time of the battle of Bunker 

Hill, 367 
Swearing, the terrible, in Boston 

in early days, 232 
Synod, the, of 1637, at New Town, 

(Cambridge), 79 



Table, provisions for the, 219 

Taxation, arguments against, source 
of, 272 ; by stamp proposed, 224, 
277 ; Avithout representation tyr- 
ranny, a sentiment of Otis, 276 

Taxes, arbitrary, laid by Andros 
and Randolph, 167 ; exorbitant 
in Boston, 277 ; ought to be laid 
by representati\es only, 168 ; re- 
moved, except on tea, 321 

Taylor, Jeremy, on the treatment 
of Baptists, 106 

Tea, cost of, after the Revolution, 
386 ; the, destroyed at Griffin's 
wharf, shall it be paid for? 354 ; 
quality of, and (juanlity of, used 
in Boston in pre-revolutionary 
times, 323 ; renounced by Har- 
vard students and others, 300, 
301 ; shipments of, expected, 337 ; 
tax upon, levied hy England, 292 ; 
tax upon, retained for a reason, 
321 ; endangers liberty, 324, 325 

Teachers, training demanded of, 
444 ; women equal to men, 442 



INDEX. 



505 



Temperance approved by ^^"in- 

throp, 51 
Ten Hills Farm, 52 
Ten men, the, of early Boston, 41 S 
Texts, strange, for sermons, 205, 

206 
Thacher, Oxenbridge, supports 

Adams, 278 
Thanksgiving-day, the first, in 

Boston, 52 
Theology m Boston, 446 
Thompson, Benjamin, on early 

New England diet, 62 
Thompson, George, anti-slaverv 

agitator, 463 
Thursday lecture, the, 118, 175 ; 

attendance upon, made a means 

of popularity, 196 
Ticknor, George, gives books to 

the Public Library, 476 
Tindale, Arthur, carries a letter to 

Margaret Winthrop, 46 
Tobacco, laws against the use of, 

137 
Toleration, Williams on, 76 
Tonnage of Boston in 1 71 7, 194 
Tories, estates of, confiscated, 396 ; 

the, oppose the formation of 

local governments, 381 ; ridicule 

the committee of correspondence, 

328 
Tories and whigs, rise of the names, 

262 
Toryism makes itself felt in 1778, 

389 ^ 

Town Cove in early days, 58 

Town Dock, the, condition of, in 
1822, 433 

Town-house, the old, a scene in, 
268 ; the first, 61 

Town-meeting, a, called to censure 
the governor, 326 ; in Boston to 
confer with Gage, 364 ; highest 
mark of the, 329 ; important 
function of the, 378 

Town-meetings, difficulties in re- 
gard to, 420 ; feared by England, 
345 ; how warned, 91 ; not to be 
permitted, 346 

Towns, first heard of, gi ; the. 



about Boston arm themselves, 
357 ; in Massachusetts express 
themselves, 32S ; the "unfor- 
tunate " power of, 91 

"Townsmen," the, of early Boston, 
418 ; refreshments for the, 419 

Town system, the, a bungling one, 
419 

Trade, brisk, in Boston, 96 ; grow- 
ing up in Boston, 97 ; inter- 
colonial, interfered with, 194 ; 
interfered with by the Boston 
port bill, 352 ; interference with, 
193 ; obstructed by the king, 
168 ; policy of controlling, 208 ; 
views of English politicians re- 
garding, 399 ; carrying, the, 
wealth gained in, 414 

Trade and manufactures improve, 
452 

Trade, the Board of, inquires about 
Boston affairs, 143 

Training-day for the militia, 69 

Transcendentalism, History of, 
quoted, 458, 460 

Tribulations at the coming of 
Andres, 164 

Trick, a political, begins the mu- 
nicipal history of Boston, 424 

Trinity Church, site of, 470 

Troops, demand for their removal, 
313 ; expected in Boston, 295, 
298 ; goaded almost beyond en- 
durance, 308, 310, 311 ; how 
quartered in 1770, 310; trouble 
in regard to quartering, 260 

Tunnel, the, through the Hoosac 
mountain, cost of, 449 

Tupper, General Benjamin, sent to 
the Ohio country, 407 

Tyler, Moses Coit, on the influence 
of Laud, 81 



U 



Uniform, the, of the old militia, 
242 

Union, the first American, 93 ; 
the, of America, as seen by Dick- 
inson, 355 ; plan for an Ameri- 



5o6 



INDEX. 



can, presented by Church, 332 ; 
discussed at Albany, ^50 ; sug- 
gestions of breaking the, 415 

Unitarian Church, distinguished 
ministers in the, 446 

Ursuline convent, destruction of 
the, 467 

V 

Vane, Sir Henry, comes to Boston, 
74, 81 ; character and influence 
of, 81 

Vassall, William, an original set- 
tler, 20 

Veils, Mather preaches on, 76 

Veto power, the, of the magistrates 
in the general court, 90 

Vice, increase of, bewailed by 
Cotton Mather, 196 

Virginia contributes to alleviate the 
sufferings of Boston, 353 

Virginia plan, the, for intercolo- 
nial correspondence, 334 

Virginia resolves, the, drawn up by 
Patrick Henry, 278 

Wainscoting, trouble about some, 

67 

Walford, Thomas, at Charton, or 
Charleton, 38 

Walpole, Sir Robert, declines to 
tax the colonies, 224 

Ward, Artemas, commands the 
American army, 365 ; again in 
command of the army about 
ISoston, 379 

Ward, Nathaniel, prepares the 
" Body of Liberties," as laws 
for the colony, 120 , recom- 
mended as freeman, 26 

Ware, Henry, chosen Ilollis TVo- 
fessor, 446 

War, the civil, 473 

War of 1 812, the, protests against, 
416 

War, Queen Anne's, 206 

\\arrants, " general," issued and 
objected to, 255 



Warren, Joseph, brouglit into 
prominence, 262 ; delivers the 
address commemorating the 
massacre, in 1775, 358, 359; 
on General Gage, 352 ; member 
of a committee to treat with 
Hutchinson, 314 ; patriotism of, 
326 

Washington, George, appointed 
commander of the continental 
army, 371 ; enters Boston, 375 ; 
subscribes to aid Boston, 353 ; 
visits Boston, in 1789, 402 

Washington Street, early names of, 

Water, condition of, in the \\ells 
and cisterns in Boston, 435 ; not 
thought a strange drink in early 
days, 62 ; provision for more, 
desired by the first Mayor 
Quincy, 432, 435 

Waterton, Charles, on the Boston 
tea-party, 344 

Watertown becomes the capital, 

^371 

Webb, Rev. John, preaches a cen- 
tennial sermon, 231 

Webster, Daniel, on the massacre, 

319 

Wells, Charles, mavor. 456 

Wells, W. v.. Life of Adams, 
quoted, 295, 403 

West, the, Boston men look tow- 
ard, 406 

West End, l)oundaries of, 397 ; 
obtrusiveness of vice in, 430 

Wheelright, Rev. John, banished, 
80 

Whigs, a club of, in 1747, 264 

Whigs and tories, rise of the names, 
262 

Whipping as a jninishment, 64, 

Whitefield, George, visits ]M)ston, 
232 

Whitman, Zachariah, G., men- 
tioned, 241 

Wig, the, of Josiah Willard, 215 

Wigglesworth. Michael, on the in- 
habitants of America, 12 



INDEX. 



507 



Wightman, Joseph M., mayor, 456 

Wilkins, Richard, bookseller, alter- 
cation in shop of, 215 

Willard, Josiah, cuts off his hair, 
215 

Willard, Rev. Samuel, President of 
Harvard College, 135 ; preaches 
on the bad times, 199 

William Henry, Fort, fall of, 258 

Williams, Roger, comes over, 65 ; 
banished, 77 ; Life of, by W. 
Gammell, 66 ; opinions of, 76 ; 
views regarding the Church of 
England, 31, 74 ; will not perse- 
cute Quakers, iir 

Wilmington, N. C, sends aid to 
Boston, 353 

Wilson, Rev. John, chosen first 
pastor, 41 

Windmill Hill (Copp's) 58 

Wine at funerals, 228 ; furnished 
the populace, 289 

^Vinsor, Justin, " History of Am- 
erica," 2 ; " Memorial History 
of Boston," by, loi, 344, 398, 
410, 418, 433. 442, 479 

Winthrop, Fones, wishes to marry 
Ursula Fones, 27 

Winthrop, Forth, and Deane sail 
for America, 55 

Winthrop, Henry, death of, 46 

Winthrop, John, appears in con- 
iiection with the Boston colony, 
6 ; aims of, according to Mayor 
Quincy, 451 ; character of, 127 ; 
chosen governor, 24 ; dwelling 
of, probably demolished by tlie 
British, 370 ; gives up the use of 
tobacco, 137 ; home of, 59, 60 ; 
lost in the woods, 53 ; motives 
of, II ; ordered to give up the 
charter, 123 ; removes his dwell- 



ing to Boston, 67 ; rotated out 
of office, 72 ; statue of, 482 ; 
tender letters of, 28, 30 ; tries 
to keep his courage up, 48 ; 
troubled by a financial panic, 
97 ; dies, 114, 127 ; his " Model 
of Christian Charity," 34 
Winthrop and Dudley fall out, 67 
Winthrop, John, Jr., agrees with 
his father about America, 23 ; 
invents a windmill, 28 
Winthrop, Margaret, correspond- 
ence with her husband, 16 ; 
sails for America, 55 ; character 
of, 114 ; dies, 114 
Winthrop, Robert Charles, Speaker 

of the House, 465 
Witchcraft delusion, the, 185 
Woman's Club, the New England, 

468 
Woman s yoiirnal, TIu\ 468 
Woman suffragism, rise of, 467 
Women, education of, 439, 441 ; 
examinations for, at Harvard 
College, 443 ; fashions of, in 
early days, 138 ; garments of, 
in early times, 2i8 ; voters, Mork 
of, 467 ; wish to complete a good 
English education, 442, 443 
" Wonder-Working Providence," 

The, of Edward Johnson, 41 
Worcester, railway to, 450 
Worship, forms of, 64 ; religious, 

in families, 177 
Writs of assistance, legality of, 
questioned, 268, 270 

Y 

Yorktown, victory at, gives joy to 

Boston, 395 
Young, Thomas, makes an address, 

319 



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(From " The Story of the City of New York. 

" Will be found in all respects a convenient, accurate, and comprehensive 
record of the city's development for three hundred years." — Ncio York 
Independent. 

" Mr. Todd has managed his material with much skill, and he succeeds K 
excellently in putting before the reader very striking pen-pictures of the \ 
different phases of civic development. The book is pleasantly written and 
we have found it very readable." — Philadelphia Telegraph. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. New York and London. 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Robert Fulton and Steam Navigation. By Thos. W. 
Knox, editor of " The Travels of Marco Polo," author of 
" Boy Travellers in the East," etc., etc. One large i2mo 
volume, profusely illustrated . . . '. . • $i 75 




This hook tells the story of a life of constant activity and usefulness, 
and describes the rise and progress of steam navigation in a manner most 
remarkable and clear. It is free from technical terms of all description, 
and is written in that charmingly narrative and picturesque form for which 
Mr. Knox is so justly famous. 

The book is composed of 500 pages, and contains 82 elegant engravings, 
which go to emphasize its usefulness. 

The early struggles of Fulton to get recognition for his inventions, his 
perseverance, and his dogged determination to succeed, are depicted 
forcefully and sympathetically. All the great ocean, war, and river 
steamers of the century, their principles of construction, the gradual evo- 
lution of speed by means of improved application of the original idea, and 
the development of the original crude machinery, are described and exem- 
plified by numerous illustrations. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London. 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Noah Brooks. Crown 

octavo, with many illustrations . . . • $i 75 







&H 6ri k^^\ 



LINCOLN S WRESTLE WITH ARMSTRONG. 
(Reduced from " Life of Abraham Lincoln.") 



"In writing this brief biography, I have been moved by a desire to give 
the generation of young people, who will never know aught of Abraham 
Lincoln but what is traditional, a life-like picture of the man as many men 
knew him. . . . Many things relating to his early life herein set down 4 
were derived from his own lips, often during hours of secluded companion 
ship." — From Author's Preface. 

" An excellent and timely book." — New Albany Ledger. 

"An admirably written book." — Buffalo Christian Advocate. 

" It is a capital book." — Pittsburgh Chronicle. 

" A more interesting biography we have not read." — Hartford Times. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London 



